•-•- 


Everett 

A  Eulogy  on  the  Life  and 
Character  of  John  Quincy  Adams 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


EULOGY 

ON    THE    LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

OF 

JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS, 

DELIVERED  AT  THE  BEQUEST 

OF   THE    LEGISLATURE    OF   MASSACHUSETTS, 

IN    FANEUIL    HALL, 

APRIL  15,  1848. 


•  Ego  vero  ie,  cum  vitae  flore  turn  mortis  opportunitate,  divino  consilio  et  ortum  et 
extinctum  esse  arbitror."  CICEBO  DE  ORAT.  in.  4. 


BY  EDWARD  EVERETT. 


BOSTON: 

DUTTON   AND   WENTWORTH,    STATE   PRINTERS, 
No.  37,  Congress  Street. 

1848. 


PREFATORY   NOTE. 


A  CONSIDERABLE  resemblance  will  be  perceived,  in  the 
narrative  part,  between  the  following  Eulogy  and  other 
discourses  of  the  same  description,  which  have  been  pub- 
lished since  President  Adams's  decease.  This  similarity 
arises  from  the  fact  that  the  biographical  portion  of  all 
these  performances,  (as  far  as  I  am  aware,)  has  for  the 
most  part  been  derived,  directly  or  indirectly,  from  a 
common  source,  viz.,  the  memoir  prepared  for  the  Na- 
tional Portrait  Gallery,  in  1839,  by  Rev.  C.  W.  Upham, 
of  Salem.  That  memoir  was  drawn  up  from  authentic 
sources,  and  is  the  principal  authority  for  the  biographical 
notices  contained  in  the  following  pages.  It  has,  however, 
been  in  my  power  to  extend  some  of  the  details,  and  to 
add  others  wholly  new,  from  materials  kindly  furnished 
to  me  by  Mr.  Charles  Francis  Adams,  from  the  papers 
of  his  honored  father.  A  few  facts  have  been  given 
from  personal  recollection,  and  this  number  could  have 
been  greatly  increased,  had  the  nature  of  the  occasion  ren- 
dered it  proper  to  enlarge  upon  the  subject  of  Mr.  Adams's 
administration,  during  the  whole  of  which,  as  a  member 
of  Congress  possessing  his  confidence,  and  for  the  last  half 
of  his  administration  as  chairman  of  the  committee  of 
foreign  affairs,  I  had  occasion  to  be  in  constant  and  inti- 
mate communication  with  him. 


6 

The  communications  of  the  Hon.  Joseph  E.  Sprague  to 
the  Salem  Register,  written  during  the  period  pending 
the  presidential  election  of  1824,  contain  a  great  deal  of 
information  of  the  highest  value  and  interest,  relative  to 
the  life,  services,  and  career  of  Mr.  Adams. 

Some  new  facts  of  interest  are  contained  in  the  admi- 
rable sermon  delivered  by  Rev.  Mr.  Lunt,  at  Q,uincy,  a 
performance  rendering  any  further  eulogy  superfluous. 

A  few  passages  in  the  following  discourse,  omitted  in 
the  delivery  on  account  of  its  length,  are  inserted  in  the 
printed  copy. 

EDWARD   EVERETT. 

CAMBRIDGE.  17m  APRIL.  1818. 


EULOGY 


MAY  IT  PLEASE  YOUR  EXCELLENCY, 

AND  YOU,  GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  LEGISLATURE  :- 

You  have  devolved  upon  me  the  honorable  duty 
of  delivering  a  Eulogy  on  the  life  and  character  of 
the  late  President  Adams;  but  the  performance  of 
that  duty  has  been  already,  in  no  small  degree, 
anticipated.  Most  eloquent  voices  in  the  two  Houses 
of  Congress,  inspired  by  the  emotions  which  the 
great  closing  scene  was  so  well  calculated  to  pro- 
duce, have  been  heard  in  commemoration  of  his 
talents,  his  services,  and  his  worth.  Distinguished 
members  of  your  own  honorable  bodies  have  given 
utterance,  on  behalf  of  the  people  of  Massachusetts, 
to  those  feelings  of  respect  and  admiration,  with  which 
they  claim  him  as  their  own.  The  funeral  obsequies 
have  been  performed,  in  the  most  solemn  and  touching 
manner,  at  the  seat  of  government.  The  population 
of  the  great  cities  of  the  Union  has  formed,  I  had 
almost  said,  one  mighty  funeral  procession,  to  pay  the 
last  passing  tribute  to  the  mortal  remains  of  the  de- 
parted statesman,  as  they  have  been  borne  through 


the  country,  with  that  unexampled  and  most  honora- 
ble attendance  of  a  congressional  delegation  from 
every  State  in  the  Union.  Those  honored  relics  have 
been  received  with  every  demonstration  of  public 
respect  within  these  venerated  walls ;  and  they  have 
been  laid  down  in  their  final  resting-place,  with  rites 
the  most  affecting  and  impressive,  amidst  the  tears 
and  blessings  of  relatives,  friends,  and  neighbors,  in 
his  village  home. 

Falling,  as  he  has  done,  at  a  period  of  high  politi- 
cal excitement,  and  entertaining  and  expressing,  as  he 
ever  did,  opinions  the  most  decided  in  the  boldest 
and  most  uncompromising  manner,  he  has  yet  been 
mourned,  as  an  object  of  respect  and  veneration,  by 
good  men  and  patriots  of  every  party  name.  Leaders, 
that  rarely  met  him  or  each  other  but  in  opposition, 
unite  in  doing  honor  to  his  memory,  and  have  walked 
side  by  side  in  the  funeral  train. 

His  eulogy  has  been  pronounced,  as  far  as  some  of 
the  wisest  and  ablest  in  the  land  can  do  justice  to  the 
theme.  His  death  has  been  lamented,  as  far  as  such 
a  close  of  such  a:  career  can  be  a  subject  of  lamenta- 
tion. The  sable  drapery  that  hangs  around  us  still 
recalls  the  public  sorrows,  with  which  all  that  was 
mortal  of  the  departed  statesman  was  received  beneath 
this  consecrated  roof.  Gladly,  as  far  as  I  am  con- 
cerned, would  I  leave  in  silence  the  illustrious  subject 
of  these  mournful  honors  to  the  reverent  contempla- 


9 

tion  of  his  countrymen,  the  witnesses  of  his  career; 
of  the  young  men  who  will  learn  it,  in  part,  from  still 
recent  tradition ; — and  of  those  who  succeed  us,  who 
will  find  the  memorials  of  his  long,  laborious,  and 
eventful  life,  in  the  archives  of  the  country  and  on 
the  pages  of  its  history. 

But  you,  Gentlemen  of  the  Legislature,  have  or- 
dered otherwise.  You  have  desired  that  a  more  formal 
expression  of  respect  for  the  memory  of  our  illustri- 
ous fellow- citizen  should  be  made  on  your  behalf. 
You  have  wished  to  place  on  record  a  deliberate  testi- 
monial of  your  high  sense  of  his  exalted  worth. 
Leaving  to  the  historian  of  the  country  to  fill  some  of 
his  brightest  and  most  instructive  pages  with  the  full 
description  of  his  various,  long-continued,  and  faithful 
services,  you  have  wished,  while  the  impression  of  his 
loss  is  still  fresh  upon  our  minds,  that  those  services 
should  be  the  subject  of  such  succinct  review  and  such 
honest  eulogium,  as  the  nature  of  the  occasion  admits, 
and  it  has  been  in  my  power,  under  the  pressure  of 
other  engagements,  most  imperfectly  to  prepare. 

Permit  me  to  add,  Gentlemen,  that  1  find,  in  the 
circumstances  under  which  you  have  invited  me  to 
this  duty,  the  rule  which  ought  to  govern  me  in  its 
performance.  By  a  legislature  composed  of  members 
belonging  to  the  various  political  parties  of  the  day,  I 
have  been  unanimously  requested  to  undertake  this 
honorable  and  delicate  trust.  I  see,  in  this  fact,  the 


10 

proof,  that  it  is  as  little  your  expectation  as  your  wish 
that  the  eulogy  should  rekindle  the  animosities,  if  any 
there  be,  which  time  has  long  since  subdued,  and 
death  has,  I  trust,  extinguished  forever.  I  come,  at 
your  request,  to  strew  flowers  upon  the  grave  of  an 
illustrious  fellow- citizen ;  not  to  dig  there,  with  hate- 
ful assiduity,  for  roots  of  bitterness.  I  shall  aim  to 
strip  my  humble  narrative  of  all  the  interest  which  it 
would  derive  from  espousing  present  or  past  contro- 
versies. Some  such  I  shall  wholly  pass  over;  to  some 
I  shall  but  allude ;  on  none  shall  I  dwell  farther  than 
is  necessary  to  acquit  my  duty.  Called  to  survey  a 
career  which  commences  with  the  Revolution,  and 
covers  the  entire  political  history  of  the  country  as  an 
independent  nation,  there  are  no  subjects  of  absorb- 
ing political  interest,  ever  agitated  in  the  country, 
which  it  would  not  be  easy  to  put  in  requisition  on 
this  occasion ;  subjects,  in  reference  to  which  the 
roof  that  covers  us,  from  the  year  1764  to  the  present 
day,  has  resounded  with  appeals,  that  have  stirred  the 
public  heart  to  its  inmost  fibre.  Easy  did  I  say?  The 
difficulty  will  rather  be  to  avoid  these  topics  of  contro- 
versy, and  yet  do  any  thing  like  justice  to  the  occasion 
and  the  theme.  I  am  sure  that  I  shall  consult  your 
feelings  not  less  than  my  own,  if  I  try  to  follow  our 
illustrious  fellow- citizen  through  the  various  stages  of 
his  career,  without  mingling  ourselves  in  the  party 
struggles  of  the  day;  to  exhibit  him  in  the  just 


11 

lineaments  and  fair  proportions  of  life,  without  the 
exaggerated  colorings  of  passion  ;  true  to  nature,  but 
serene  as  the  monumental  marble ;  warm  with  the 
purest  sympathies  and  deepest  affections  of  humanity, 
but  purified  and  elevated  into  the  earthly  transfigura- 
tion of  Genius,  Patriotism,  and  Faith. 

JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS  was  of  a  stock  in  which  some 
of  the  best  qualities  of  the  New  England  character 
existed  in  their  happiest  combination.  The  basis  of 
that  character  lies  in  what,  for  want  of  a  better  name, 
we  must  still  call  "  Puritanism,"  connected,  as  that 
term  of  reproach  is,  with  some  associations,  calculated 
to  lessen  our  respect  for  one  of  the  noblest  manifesta- 
tions of  our  nature.  But,  in  the  middle  of  the  last 
• 

century,  Puritanism  in  New  England  had  laid  aside 
much  of  its  sternness  and  its  intolerance,  and  had  be- 
gun to  reconcile  itself  with  the  milder  charities  of  life ; 
retaining,  however,  amidst  all  classes  of  the  popula- 
tion, as  much  patriarchal  simplicity  of  manners,  as 
probably  ew  existed  in  a  modern  civilized  commu- 
nity. In  the  family  of  the  elder  President  Adams,  the 
narrow  range  of  ideas,  which,  in  most  things,  marked 
the  first  generations,  had  been  enlarged  by  academic 

\j  '  tJ  */ 

education,  and  by  the  successful  pursuit  of  a  liberal 
profession ;  and  the  ancient  severity  of  manners  had 
been  still  farther  softened  by  the  kindly  influences  ex- 
erted by  a  mother  who,  in  the  dutiful  language  of  him 


12 

whom  we  now  commemorate,  "  united  all  the  virtues 
which  adorn  and  dignify  the  female  and  the  Christian 
character." 

The  period  at  which  he  was  bora  was  one  of  high 
and  stirring  interest.  A  straggle  impended  over  the 
colonies,  differing  more  in  form  than  in  its  principles, 
from  that  which  took  place  in  England  a  little  more 
than  a  century  earlier.  The  agitations  which  pre- 
ceded it  were  of  a  nature  to  strain  to  their  highest 
tension  both  the  virtues  and  capacities  of  men.  Of 
the  true  character  of  the  impending  events,  no  one 
seems  earlier  to  have  formed  a  distinct  conception 
than  the  elder  President  Adams.  He  appears,  at  the 
very  commencement  of  the  Seven  Years'  Wai',  and 
when  he  was  but  twenty  years  old,  to  have  formed 
a  general  anticipation  of  all  the  great  events,  which 
have  successively  taken  place  for  the  last  century. 
He  seems  dimly  to  have  foreseen,  even  then,  the 
independence  of  the  colonies,  and  the  establishment 
of  a  great  naval  power  in  the  West.  The  capture  of 
Quebec,  followed  by  the  total  downfall  of  the  French 
power  on  this  continent,  while  it  promised,  as  the 
first  consequence,  an  indefinite  extension  of  the 
British  empire,  suggested  another  train  of  results  to 
the  far-sighted  'and  reflecting.  History  presents  to 
us  but  few  coincidences  more  instructive,  than  that 
which  unites  the  peace  of  1763,  which  ratified  these 
great  successes  of  British  policy  and  British  arms, 


13 

with  the  conception  of  that  plan  of  American  tax- 
ation, which  resulted  in  the  severance  of  the  British 
empire.  John  Adams  perceived,  perhaps,  before  any 
other  person,  that  the  mother  country,  in  depriving 
France  of  her  American  colonies,  had  dispossessed 
herself  of  her  own.  The  first  battles  of  American 
independence  were  gained  on  the  heights  of  Abra- 
ham. 

I  revert  to  these  events,  because  they  mark  the 
character  of  the  period  when  the  life  which  we  com- 
memorate began.  The  system  of  American  taxation 
was  adopted  in  1764.  The  Stamp  Act  was  passed  in 
1765.  The  Essays  on  "  the  Canon  and  Feudal  Law," 
of  President  Adams,  were  written  the  same  year. 
In  1766,  the  Stamp  Act  was  repealed,  but  the  repeal 
was  accompanied  with  the  assertion  of  a  right  to  tax 
America.  This  right  was  exercised  the  following 
year,  by  the  imposition  of  duties  on  several  articles 
imported  into  the  colonies,  and,  on  the  llth  of  June, 
of  that  year,  John  Quincy  Adams  was  born.  He 
came  into  life  with  the  struggling  rights  of  his 
country.  "  The  cradle  hymns  of  the  child  were  the 
songs  of  liberty.""'1  He  received  the  first  parental 
instructions  from  one,  to  whom  the  United  Colonies 
had  already  begun  to  look  for  encouragement  and 
guidance,  in  the  mighty  crisis  of  their  fate. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  trace,  in  their  operation 
upon  the  opening  mind  of  the  child,  the  effect  of 
*  Mr.  Senator  Davis. 


u 

the  exciting  events  of  the  day.  Beneath  the  roof 
of  the  elder  Adams,  the  great  doctrines  of  English 
liberty,  for  which  our  fathers  contended,  were  house- 
hold words.  He  was  barely  three  years  old,  when 
his  father, — the  ardent  patriot,  the  zealous  son  of 
liberty, — appeared  in  court,  as  the  counsel  for  the 
soldiers,  who  had  fired  upon  the  people  in  Boston, 
on  the  5th  of  March,  1770.  Two  years  later,  his 
father  was  negatived  by  the  Royal  Governor,  as  a 
member  of  the  Executive  Council.  In  1774,  the 
port  of  Boston  was  shut,  the  Continental  Congress 
agreed  upon,  and  his  father  elected  one  of  the  four 
delegates,  who  represented  Massachusetts  in  that 
assembly  at  Philadelphia.  In  1775,  the  appeal  was 
made  to  arms;  and  George  Washington  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  chief  command  of  the  American  forces, 
on  the  emphatic  recommendation  of  John  Adams. 
In  1776,  independence  was  declared,  on  the  report 
of  a  committee,  on  which  Thomas  Jefferson  and  John 
Adams  stood  first  and  second,  and  was  triumphantly 
carried  through  Congress,  mainly  by  the  fervid  elo- 
quence of  Adams.  All  these  great  events, — eras  in 
our  history,  (and,  may  I  not  say.  eras  in  the  civilized 
world?  witness  the  convulsions  now  shaking  Conti- 
nental Europe  to  the  centre,) — although  they  occupy 
but  a  few  chapters  in  the  compends  in  which  we  read 
them,  filled  years  of  doubtful,  strenuous,  resolute  exer- 
tion in  the  lives  of  our  fathers.  They  were  brought 


15 

home  to  the  fireside  at  which  young  Adams  was  train-  " 
ed,  hy  his  father's  daily  participation;  by  his  letters,.  J 
when  absent ;  by  the  sympathizing  mother's  anxieties, 
hopes,  and  fears.     There  was  not  a  time  for  years, 
when,  to  ask  the  question  under  that   roof,  "  "Will 
America   establish   her   liberties?"   would   not   have 
been   asking,   in   other  words,   "  Shall   we    see   our 
father's   face   in  peace   again?"      It   may  fairly   be 
traced  to  these  early  impressions,  that  the  character  ^ 
of  John    Quincy   Adams    exhibited   through   life    so 
much   of  what  is  significantly  called  "  the  spirit   of 
seventy-six." 

And  here  I  may  be  permitted  to  pause  for  a  mo- 
ment, to  pay  a  well  deserved  tribute  of  respect  to  the 
memory  of  the  excellent  mother,  to  whose  instruc- 
tions so  much  of  the  subsequent  eminence  of  the  son 
is  due.  No  brighter  example  exists  of  auspicious 
maternal  influence,  in  forming  the  character  of  a 
great  and  good  man.  Her  letters  to  him,  some  of 
which  have  been  preserved  and  given  to  the  world, 
might  almost  be  called  a  manual  of  a  wise  mother's 
advice.  The  following  passage  from  one  of  her  pub- 
lished letters,  written  when  her  son  was  seven  years 
old,  will  show  how  the  minds  of  children  were  formed 
in  the  revolutionary  period.  "  I  have  taken,"  she 
says,  "  a  very  great  fondness  for  reading  Rollin's  An- 
cient History  since  you  left  me.  I  am  determined  to 
go  through  with  it,  if  possible,  in  these  days  of  my 


solitude.  I  find  great  pleasure  and  entertainment 
from  it,  and  have  persuaded  Johnny  to  read  a  page 
or  two  every  dayj  and  hope  he  will  from  his  desire  to 
oblige  me,  entertain  a  fondness  for  it."  In  that  one 
phrase  lies  all  the  philosophy  of  education.  The  child 
of  seven  years  old,  who  reads  a  serious  book  with 
fondness,  from  his  desire  to  oblige  his  mother,  has 
entered  the  high  road  of  usefulness  and  honor. 

The  troubled  state  of  the  times  probably  interfered 
with  school  education.  John  Quincy  Adams,  I  be- 
lieve, never  went  to  a  school  in  America.  Besides 
the  instruction  which  he  received  from  his  mother, 
he  was  aided  by  the  young  gentlemen  who  studied 
law  under  his  father.  It  is  to  one  of  these  that  allu- 
sion is  made,  in  the  following  child's  letter,  written 
to  his  father,  at  Philadelphia,  before  he  was  ten  years 
old,  which  I  think  you  will  not  be  displeased  at  hear- 
ing from  the  original  manuscript. 

"  BRAINTREE,  JUNE  the  2d,  1777. 

"  DEAR  SIR, — I  love  to  receive  letters  very  well,  much 
better  than  I  love  to  write  them.  I  make  but  a  poor 
figure  at  composition,  my  head  is  much  too  fickle.  My 
thoughts  are  running  after  birds'  eggs,  play,  and  trifles 
till  I  get  vexed  with  myself.  Mamma  has  a  troublesome 
task  to  keep  me  steady,  and  I  own  I  am  ashamed  of  my- 
self. I  have  but  just  entered  the  third  volume  of  Smollet, 
though  I  had  designed  to  have  got  half  through  it  by  this 
time.  I  have  determined  this  week  to  be  more  diligent, 
as  Mr.  Thaxter  will  be  absent  at  court,  and  I  cannot  pur- 


IT 

sue  my  other  studies.  I  have  set  myself  a  stint,  and  de- 
termine to  read  the  third  volume  half  out.  If  I  can  but 
keep  my  resolution,  I  will  write  again  at  the  end  of  the 
week,  and  give  a  better  account  of  myself.  I  wish,  sir, 
you  would  give  me  some  instructions  with  regard  to  my 
time,  and  advise  me  how  to  proportion  my  studies  and 
my  play,  in  writing,  and  I  will  keep  them  by  me  and 
endeavor  to  follow  them.  I  am,  dear  sir,  with  a  present 
determination  of  growing  better, 

Yours, 

JOHN  Q.UINCY  ADAMS. 

P.  S. — Sir,  if  you  will  be  so  good  as  to  favor  me  with 
a  blank  book,  I  will  transcribe  the  most  remarkable  occur- 
rences I  meet  with  in  my  reading,  which  will  serve  to  fix 
them  upon  my  mind." 

Such  was  the  boy  at  the  age  of  ten  years ! 

We  shall  find,  in  the  sequel,  that  the  classical  rule 
was  not  departed  from,  in  the  farther  progress  of  his 
character. 

servetur  ad  imum 

Qualis  ab  incepto  processerit,  et  sibi  constet. 

At  this  early  period  of  his  life,  the  horizon  at  once 
bursts  widely  open  before  him.  From  the  bosom  of 
a  New  England  village,  in  which  he  had  never  been 
to  school,  he  is  transferred,  before  he  is  eleven  years 
old,  to  the  capital  of  France.  Among  the  great 
movements  of  the  revolution,  no  one  is  of  greater 
importance  than  the  alliance  with  France.  It  gave  a 
character  to  the  struggle  in  the  eyes  of  the  world, 
and  eventually  threw  the  whole  political  weight  of 
3 


18 

continental  Europe  into  the  American  scale.  In  the 
course  of  1776,  Silas  Deane,  Dr.  Franklin,  and  Ar- 
thur Lee,  were  appointed  commissioners  to  France, 
on  behalf  of  Congress.  Deane  was  recalled  the  fol- 
lowing year,  and,  in  the  month  of  November,  1777, 
John  Adams  was  appointed  his  successor.  Desirous 
of  giving  his  son,  then  ten  years  and  a  half  of  age, 
those  advantages  of  education  which  his  native  coun- 
try did  not  at  that  time  afford,  he  took  him  to  France. 
They  sailed  in  the  Boston  frigate,  commanded  by 
Commodore  Tucker,  on  the  13th  February,  1778, 
and  reached  Bordeaux  in  the  month  of  April,  after  a 
tempestuous  passage  over  an  ocean  covered  with  the 
enemy's  cruisers. 

The  father  established  himself  at  Passy,  the  resi- 
dence of  Dr.  Franklin ;  and  here,  for  the  first  time, 
I  find  any  mention  of  the  son's  receiving  any  other 
instruction  than  that  of  the  fireside.  Here  he  was 
sent  to  school,  and  laid  the  foundation  for  that  inti- 
mate acquaintance  with  the  French  language,  which 
he  retained  through  life,  and  which  was  of  the  great- 
est service  to  him  in  his  subsequent  diplomatic  ca- 
reer. It  needs  scarcely  be  added,  that  the  occasional 
intercourse  of  Dr.  Franklin,  and  of  the  eminent  per- 
sons of  almost  every  part  of  Europe,  who  sought  the 
society  of  the  American  commissioners  at  Passy,  was 
not  lost  upon  one,  who,  though  still  in  his  boyhood, 
possessed  uncommon  maturity  of  character. 


19 

The  counsels  of  the  faithful  and  affectionate  mother 
followed  him  beyond  the  sea.  In  one  of  the  admira- 
ble letters  to  which  I  have  referred,  written  during 
the  visit  to  France,  she  says : — "  Let  me  enjoin  it 
upon  you  to  attend  constantly  and  steadfastly  to  the 
instructions  of  your  father,  as  you  value  the  happi- 
ness of  your  mother  and  your  own  welfare.  His  care 
and  attention  to  you  render  many  things  unnecessary 
for  me  to  write,  which  I  might  otherwise  do.  But 
the  inadvertency  and  heedlessness  of  youth  require 
line  upon  line  and  precept  upon  precept,  and  when 
enforced  by  the  joint  efforts  of  both  parents,  will,  I 
hope,  have  a  due  influence  upon  your  conduct ;  for, 
dear  as  you  are  to  me,  I  would  much  rather  you 
should  have  found  your  grave  in  the  ocean  you  have 
crossed,  or  that  any  untimely  death  should  crop  you 
in  your  infant  years,  than  see  you  an  immoral,  profli- 
gate, or  graceless  child."  *  ' 

How  faithfully  the  favored  child  availed  himself  of 
his  uncommon  privileges,  needs  hardly  be  said.  At 
an  age  when  the  most  forward  children  are  rarely 
distinguished,  except  among  their  fellows  at  school, 
he  had  attracted  the  notice  of  many  of  the  eminent 
persons  who  cultivated  the  acquaintance  of  his  father. 
Mr.  John  Adams,  in  a  letter  to  his  wife,  of  14th  May, 
1779,  says: — "My  son  has  had  great  opportunities 
to  see  this  country ;  but  this  has  unavoidably  retarded 
his  education  in  some  other  things.  He  has  enjoyed 

*  Mrs.  Adams's  Letters,  I.  123. 


20 

perfect  health  from  first  to  last,  and  is  respected 
wherever  he  goes,  for  his  vigor  and  vivacity  both  of 
mind  and  of  body,  for  his  constant  good-humor,  and 
for  his  rapid  progress  in  French,  as  well  as  for  his 
general  knowledge,  which  at  his  age  is  uncommon." 
Though  proceeding  from  the  fond  pen  of  a  father, 
there  is  no  doubt  this  character  was  entirely  true.* 

The  treaty  of  alliance  with  France  had  been  con- 
cluded in  the  interval  between  Mr.  Adams's  appoint- 
ment and  his  arrival.  Dr.  Franklin  was  appointed 

*  The  following  letter,  written  from  school,  to  his  father,  is  without 
date,  but  must  have  been  written  shortly  after  his  arrival  in  France. 
It  is  not  without  interest,  as  a  memorial  of  the  first  steps  of  a  great 
mind :  — 

"  My  work  for  a  day  : — 
"  Make  Latin, 
Explain  Cicero, 
"       Erasmus, 
"       Appendix, 
Peirce  Phaedrus,  (Qu.  parse), 
Learn  Greek  Racines, 

"     Greek  Grammar, 
Geography, 
Geometry, 
Fractions, 
Writing, 
Drawing. 

"  As  a  young  boy  cannot  apply  himself  to  all  those  things,  and  keep 
a  remembrance  of  them  all,  I  should  desire  that  you  would  Jet  me  know 
what  of  those  I  must  begin  upon  at  first. 

"  I  am  your  dutiful  son, 

"JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS." 


21 

resident  minister  to  the  Court  of  Versailles,  and  Mr. 
Lee  to  Madrid ;  and,  after  a  residence  of  about  a  year 
and  a  half  at  Paris,  Mr.  Adams,  without  waiting  to 
be  recalled,  determined  to  return  to  the  United 
States.  He  was  invited  by  the  king  to  take  passage, 
with  his  son,  on  board  the  French  frigate  La  Sensible, 
which  was  appointed  to  convey  to  America  the  Chev- 
alier de  la  Luzerne,  the  first  minister  to  the  United 
States,  and  the  secretary  of  legation,  the  Marquis 
Barbe  Marbois,  afterwards  well  known  through  all 
the  phases  of  the  French  Revolution.  They  landed 
in  Boston,  August  2,  1779.  At  the  moment  of  their 
return  to  the  United  States,  an  election  was  in  prog- 
ress for  delegates  to  the  Convention  which  formed 
the  Constitution  of  Massachusetts,  and  Mr.  Adams, 
barely  landed  in  America,  was  returned  for  his  native 
town  of  Braintree. 

The  convention  assembled  in  Cambridge,  on  the 
1st  of  September,  1779,  and  having  chosen  a  com- 
mittee of  thirty-one,  to  prepare  their  work,  adjourned 
to  the  28th  October.  John  Adams  was  of  this  com- 
mittee, and,  on  the  day  of  the  adjournment,  reported 
the  first  draught  of  a  Declaration  of  Rights  and  a 
Constitution.  In  the  interval,  he  had  received  from 
Congress  a  new  commission  to  negotiate  a  peace  with 
Great  Britain,  and  on  the  14th  of  November,  1779, 
he  again  took  passage  on  board  La  Sensible,  on  her 
return  voyage  to  Europe.  He  had  barely  passed 


22 

three  months  in  the  country,  during  which  he  had 
drawn  up  a  Constitution,  that  remains,  after  seventy 
years, — in  all  material  respects, — the  frame  of  gov- 
ernment under  which  we  live;  has  served,  in  some 
degree,  as  a  model  for  other  State  Constitutions,  and 
even  for  that  of  the  United  States ;  and  under  which, 
as  we  hope,  our  children,  to  the  latest  posterity,  will 
continue  to  enjoy  the  blessings  of  rational  liberty. 
I  have  dwelt  a  moment  longer  on  these  incidents,  to 
illustrate  the  domestic  influences  under  which  John 
Quincy  Adams  was  trained. 

He  was  again  the  companion  of  his  father  on  this 
second  wintry  voyage  to  Europe.  The  frigate  sprung 
a  leak  through  stress  of  weather,  and,  though  bound 
to  Brest,  was  obliged  to  put  into  Ferrol,  a  port  in  the 
northwestern  corner  of  Spain.  Here  they  arrived  on 
the  7th  of  December,  and  were  obliged  to  perform  the 
journey  partly  on  horses  and  mules  through  Gallicia, 
Asturias,  and  Biscay,  in  midwinter,  to  Paris.  Mr.  Ad- 
ams was  accompanied,  on  this  voyage,  by  Charles,  his 
second  son,  long  since  deceased,  and  by  Mr.  Francis 
Dana,  afterwards  chief  justice  of  Massachusetts,  then 
acting  as  Secretary  of  Legation  to  Mr.  Adams.  Mr. 
Adams  remained  in  Paris  till  midsummer  of  1780, 
during  which  time  the  children  were  again  placed  at 
a  boarding-school.  In  July  of  that  year,  he  repaired 
to  Holland,  with  a  commission  from  Congress  to  nego- 
tiate a  treaty  with  the  republic  of  the  Netherlands, 


23 

for  the  recognition  of  the  independence  of  the  United 
States.  The  boys  were  sent  to  the  public  school  of 
the  city  of  Amsterdam,  and  afterwards  transferred  to 
the  academical  department  of  the  University  at  Ley- 
den,  at  that  time  not  inferior  in  celebrity  to  any  place 
of  education  on  the  continent  of  Europe.  In  July, 
1781,  Mr.  Dana,  who,  in  the  preceding  October,  had 
received  a  commission  from  Congress  as  Minister  Plen- 
ipotentiary to  the  Court  of  St.  Petersburg,  started  for 
that  capital,  taking  with  him  John  Quincy  Adams  as 
private  secretary  and  interpreter,  being  then  just  four- 
teen years  of  age.  In  this  capacity,  he  was  recognized 
by  Congress,  and  there  is,  perhaps,  no  other  case  of  a 
person  so  young  being  employed  in  a  civil  office  of 
trust,  under  the  government  of  the  United  States. 
But,  in  Mr.  Adams's  career,  there  was  no  boyhood. 

The  youthful  secretary  remained  at  St.  Petersburg 
till  October,  1782,  during  which  period,  the  nature  of 
his  occupations  was  such,  as  to  perfect  his  knowledge 
of  the  French  language,  and  to  give  him,  young  as  he 
was,  no  small  insight  into  the  political  system  of  Eu- 
rope, of  which  the  American  question  was,  at  that 
time,  the  leading  topic.  He  also  devoted  himself  with 
assiduity  to  his  studies,  and  pursued  an  extensive 
course  of  general  reading.  The  official  business  of 
the  American  minister,  who  was  not  publicly  received 
by  the  Empress  Catherine,  was  mostly  transacted  with 
the  Marquis  de  Verac,  the  French  Ambassador,  be- 


tween  whom  and  Mr.  Dana,  young  Adams  acted  as 
interpreter.*  In  October,  1782,  Mr.  Adams  senior 
brought  to  a  close  his  arduous  mission  in  Holland,  by 
concluding  a  treaty  of  amity,  navigation,  and  com- 
merce with  the  States  General,  which  remains  in  force 
between  the  two  countries  to  this  day.  On  the  very 
next  day,  he  started  for  Paris,  to  perform  his  duty,  as 
joint  commissioner  with  Dr.  Franklin  and  Mr.  Jay,  to 
negotiate  with  the  British  envoys  for  peace  ;  and  about 
the  same  time,  his  son  left  St.  Petersburg  for  Hol- 
land. The  young  man,  then  but  a  little  more  than 
fifteen  years  of  age,  made  the  long  journey  from  the 
Russian  capital  alone,  passing  through  Sweden,  Den- 
mark, and  the  Hanse  towns,  and  arriving  at  the  Hague 
in  the  spring  of  1 783.  Here  his  studies  were  resumed, 
and  pursued  for  a  few  months,  till  he  was  sent  for  by 
his  father  to  Paris,  where  he  was  present  at  the  sign- 
ing of  the  definitive  treaty  of  peace  in  the  month  of 
September,  1783.  I  remember  to  have  heard  him 
say,  that,  acting  as  his  father's  secretary,  he  prepared 
one  of  the  copies  of  that  treaty. 

The  two  succeeding  years  were  passed  by  young 
Adams  mostly  with  his  father,  in  England,  Holland, 
and  France,  in  which  several  countries,  Mr.  Adams 
senior  was  employed  on  the  public  business.  During 
this  period,  his  attention  was  divided  between  his 
studies,  elementary  and  classical,  and  his  employment 

*  Mrs.  Adams's  Letters,  Vol.  II.  157. 


25 

as  his  father's  secretary.  "  Congress  are  at  such 
grievous  expense,"  his  father  writes,  "  that  I  shall 
have  no  other  secretary  than  my  son.  He,  however, 
is  a  very  good  one.  He  writes  a  good  hand  very  fast, 
and  is  steady  to  his  pen  and  his  books."  *  By  the 
time  he  had  reached  the  age  of  eighteen,  besides  being 
well  advanced  in  the  branches  of  study  usually  taught 
at  schools,  he  was,  no  doubt,  one  of  the  most  accom- 
plished young  men  of  his  time.  In  addition  to  a  good 
foundation  in  Latin  and  Greek,  he  was  master  of  the 
French ;  he  had  read  extensively  in  that  language  and 
in  the  English ;  he  had  seen  several  of  the  principal 
countries  of  Europe  ;  and  he  had  watched,  with  a  close- 
ness beyond  his  years,  but  required  by  his  position,  the 
political  history  of  Europe  during  a  very  eventful  lus- 
trum. In  short,  since  he  was  twelve  years  old,  he  had 
talked  with  men. 

But  his  own  judgment  suggested  to  him  that  a 
longer  residence  in  Europe  was  not,  at  this  time,  ex- 
pedient. His  father  was  appointed  Minister  to  the 
Court  of  St.  James,  in  May,  1785  ;  and,  resisting  the 
temptation  to  take  up  his  residence  with  the  family  at 
London,  now  joined  by  that  beloved  mother  from  whom 
he  had  been  so  long  separated,  the  son  obtained  the 
permission  of  his  parents  to  return  to  the  United 
States,  for  the  sake  of  completing  his  academic  educa- 
tion at  Cambridge.  He  arrived  in  New  York,  in  July, 

*  Letters  of  John  Adams,  Vol.  II.  102. 
4 


26 

1785.  He  was  the  bearer  of  a  long  letter  from  Mr. 
Jefferson,  then  Minister  of  the  United  States  at  Paris, 
to  Mr.  Vice  President  Gerry,  in  which  Mr.  Jefferson 
says,'  "  I  congratulate  your  country  on  their  prospect 
in  this  young  man."  He  passed  about  six  months  at 
Haverhill,  in  the  family  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Shaw,  his  ma- 
ternal relative,  during  which  time  he  read  over  the 
books  in  which  it  was  necessary  to  be  examined  for 
admission  to  advanced  standing  at  college,  none  of 
which,  with  the  exception  of  Horace,  had  been  read 
by  him  before.  He  was  admitted  to  the  junior  class 
at  the  university  on  15th  March,  1786.  The  usual 
payment  required  of  students  entering  to  advanced 
standing  was,  in  his  case,  dispensed  with ;  "  the  cor- 
poration and  overseers  having  voted,  as  a  mark  of  grat- 
itude to  his  father  for  the  important  services  rendered 
by  him  to  the  United  States,  that  he  should  be  ad- 
mitted free  of  all  charge  to  whatever  standing  he 
should,  upon  examination,  be  found  qualified  for." : 
Thus  began  his  connexion  with  the  university,  of 
which  he  remained,  to  the  rest  of  his  life,  a  dutiful 
and  an  honored  son,  and  a  liberal  benefactor. 

Possessing,  by  nature,  talents  of  the  highest  order, 
especially  that  which  is  among  the  soonest  developed 
in  the  human  mind,  the  talent  of  memory, — having 
enjoyed  great  and  peculiar  advantages  for  general  im- 
provement in  Europe, — and  now  applying  himself, 
*  College  Records. 


27 

with  untiring  assiduity,  to  his  studies,  he  was  soon 
generally  regarded  as  standing  at  the  head  of  his  class. 
Such  is  the  testimony  of  a  venerable  magistrate,  (Mr. 
Justice  Putnam,)  who  permits  me  to  quote  his  author- 
ity, himself  one  of  the  most  distinguished  members  of 
the  class.  I  may  add,  on  the  same  authority,  that 
Adams,  though  of  manners  somewhat  reserved,  was 
distinguished  for  his  generous  feelings,  his  amiable 
temper,  and  engaging  social  qualities,  to  all  which 
were  added  unshaken  firmness  of  principle,  and  spot- 
less purity  of  life.  He  was,  from  the  outset,  eminently 
one  of  those,  who,  in  the  golden  words  of  President 
Kirkland,  "  need  not  the  smart  of  guilt  to  make  them 
virtuous,  nor  the  regret  of  folly  to  make  them  wise." 
He  took  his  first  degree  at  the  Commencement  of 
1787,  receiving  the  second  place  in  the  usual  assign- 
ment of  college  honors,  the  first  having  been  given  to 
a  classmate  who,  to  distinguished  scholarship  in  other 
^respects,  was  thought  to  add  superior  skill  in  decla- 
mation. The  subject  of  his  oration  shows  the  mature 
cast  of  his  thought.  It  was  "  The  Importance  and 
Necessity  of  Public  Faith  to  the  Well-Being  of  a 
Community." 

He  immediately  commenced  the  study  of  the  law 
at  Newburyport,  under  the  late  Chief  Justice  Par- 
sons, who  had  already  attained  the  reputation,  in  this 
part  of  the  country,  of  being  the  most  acute  and 
learned  jurist  of  the  day.  At  the  end  of  his  three 


28 

years'  noviciate,  Mr.  Adams  removed  to  Boston,  and 
established  himself  in  the  practice  of  his  profession. 
Three  eventful  years  at  home ;  in  which  the  consti- 
tution of  the  United  States  had  heen  framed  and 
adopted,  and  George  Washington  and  John  Adams 
elected  to  the  two  first  offices  under  the  new  govern- 
ment. Three  eventful  years  abroad,  in  which  the 
French  revolution, — the  first  French  revolution, — had 
moved  rapidly  forward  from  that  stage  of  early  prom- 
ise, in  which  it  was  hailed  by  the  sympathy  of  the 
friends  of  liberty  in  England  and  America,  toward 
those  excesses  and  crimes,  which  caused  it  to  be 
afterwards  viewed  with  anxiety,  disgust,  and  horror. 
Mr.  Adams  was  among  the  first  who  suspected  the 
downward  tendency.  In  1791  he  wrote  a  series  of 
articles,  in  the  Boston  Centinel,  with  the  signature  of 
Publicola,  which  were  intended  as  a  corrective  to 
some  of  the  doctrines  in  Paine's  Bights  of  Man. 
These  fugitive  essays  were  republished  in  London  as 
an  answer  to  Paine's  work,  and  there  ascribed  to  the 
author's  father,  John  Adams.  In  1793,  on  the 
breaking  out  of  the  war  between  Great  Britain  and 
France,  a  question  of  the  utmost  importance  arose, 
how  far  the  United  States  were  bound,  by  the  treaty 
of  alliance  with  France,  to  take  sides  in  the  contro- 
versy. The  division  of  opinion  on  this  point,  which 
commenced  in  the  cabinet  of  General  Washington, 
extended  throughout  the  country.  The  question  was 


29 

at  length  practically  decided,  by  President  Washing- 
ton's proclamation  of  neutrality.  Before  that  impor- 
tant document  appeared,  Mr.  Adams  had  published  a 
short  series  of  articles  in  the  Boston  Centinel,  with 
the  signature  of  Marcellus,  maintaining  the  same 
doctrine.  In  these  papers,  he  developed  the  two 
principles  on  which  his  policy  as  an  American  states- 
man rested, — union  at  home,  and  independence  of  all 
foreign  combinations  abroad.*  On  the  4th  July, 
1793,  he  delivered  the  usual  anniversary  oration  be- 
fore the  citizens  of  Boston ;  and  in  the  course  of  the 
following  winter  he  wrote  another  series  of  articles 
for  the  public  papers,  with  the  signature  of  Columbus, 
in  which  the  neutral  policy  of  the  United  States  was 
farther  developed  and  maintained,  and  the  principles 
of  the  law  of  nations,  applicable  to  the  situation  of 
the  country,  in  reference  to  the  European  belligerents, 
more  fully  unfolded. 

I  dwell  upon  these  fugitive  essays,  thrown  off  no 
doubt  in  brief  hours  of  leisure  amidst  the  occupations 
of  a  laborious  profession-,  because  they  established  at 
once  the  reputation  of  their  author,  as  one  of  the 
soundest  thinkers  and  most  forcible  writers  of  the 
day.  They  exercised  a  decided  influence  over  his 
career  in  life.  They  were  read  at  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment; and  in  the  month  of  May,  1794,  without  any 
previous  intimation  of  his  design,  either  to  his  father, 
the  vice-president,  or  himself,  President  Washington 

*  Mr.  Upham's  Memoir. 


30 

nominated  Mr.  John  Q.  Adams,  minister  resident  at 
the  Hague,  a  diplomatic  station,  at  that  period,  scarcely 
inferior  to  the  leading  courts.  Mr.  Adams  arrived  in 
Holland  about  the  time  of  the  French  invasion,  and 
the  consequent  disorganization  of  the  government 
and  the  country.  The  embarrassments  arising  from 
this  state  of  things  led  him  to  think  of  resigning  his 
office  and  coming  home ;  but  it  was  the  advice  of  the 
president,*  accompanied  with  the  approval  of  his  con- 
duct, that  he  should  remain  at  his  post.  In  the  last 
year  of  his  administration,  (1796,)  Washington  ap- 
pointed him  minister  plenipotentiary  to  Lisbon. 

About  this  period  of  his  life,  and  during  a  tempo- 
rary residence  in  London,  for  the  purpose  of  exchang- 
ing the  ratifications  of  the  treaty  with  Great  Britain, 
and  making  arrangements  for  executing  some  of  its 
provisions,  the  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Adams  com- 
menced with  the  daughter  of  Mr.  Joshua  Johnson, 
of  Maryland, — a  gentleman  then  acting  as  consular 
agent  of  the  United  States  at  London.  A  matrimo- 
nial engagement  took  place,  which  resulted,  on  the 
26th  July,  1797,  in  his  marriage  with  the  accom- 
plished and  venerable  lady,  who  for  more  than  fifty 
years  was  the  faithful  partner  of  his  affections  and 
honors,  and  survives  to  deplore  his  loss. 

Mr.  Adams,  senior,  was  chosen  president  in  the 
autumn  of  1796.  On  this  occasion  he  was  naturally 
led  to  contemplate  with  some  anxiety  the  public  rela- 

*  Washington's  Works,  xi.  56. 


31 

tions  of  his  son.  On  this  point  he  took  counsel  of 
the  truest  of  friends  and  safest  of  advisers.  Presi- 
dent Washington,  and  received  from  him  that  cele- 
brated letter  of  the  20th  of  February,  1797,  a  sen- 
tence from  which  is  inscribed  on  yonder  wall : — "  I 
give  it  as  my  decided  opinion,"  says  President  Wash- 
ington, "  that  Mr.  Adams  is  the  most  valuable  char- 
acter we  have  abroad,  and  that  he  will  prove  himself 
to  be  the  ablest  of  all  our  diplomatic  corps."  With 
this  opinion,  he  expressed  the  hope  and  the  wish, 
that  Mr.  Adams's  advancement  might  not  be  checked 
by  an  over- delicacy  on  his  father's  part. 

Circumstances  rendering  it  inexpedient,  at  that 
time,  to  establish  the  mission  to  Portugal,  Mr.  Adams's 
destination  was  changed  to  Berlin.  He  received  the 
appointment  as  minister  to  Prussia,  on  the  31st 
May,  1797.  In  the  summer  of  1798,  retaining  his 
office  as  minister  to  Prussia,  he  was  commissioned  to 
negotiate  a  treaty  with  Sweden.  During  his  mission 
at  Berlin,  he  concluded  a  treaty  of  amity  and  com- 
merce, after  a  very  able  and  protracted  negotiation, 
in  which  the  rights  of  neutral  commerce  were  dis- 
cussed by  Mr.  Adams  and  the  Prussian  commission- 
ers. In  the  summer  of  1800,  he  made  a  tour  in 
Silesia,  and  wrote  an  interesting  and  instructive  series 
of  letters,  containing  the  result  of  his  observations. 
They  were  published  without  his  consent  in  the  Port- 
folio, at  Philadelphia,  collected  in  a  volume  at  Lon- 


32 

don,  and  translated  into  French  and  German.  With 
a  view  to  perfect  his  acquaintance  with  the  German, 
Mr.  Adams,  during  his  residence  at  Berlin,  executed 
a  complete  metrical  version  of  Wieland's  Oberon,  not 
being  aware  at  the  time  that  it  had  been  already 
translated  in  England. 

He  was  recalled  toward  the  close  of  his  father's 
administration,  but  did  not  arrive  in  America  till 
September,  1801.  In  the  following  spring,  he  was 
elected  to  the  senate  of  Massachusetts  for  the  county 
of  Suffolk,  and  in  the  course  of  the  year  was  chosen 
by  the  legislature  a  senator  of  the  United  States,  for 
the  senatorial  term  commencing  on  the  3d  of  March, 
1803.  His  term  of  service  in  the  senate  of  the 
United  States  fell  upon  one  of  the  great  periods  of 
crisis  in  our  political  history.  The  party  which  had 
supported  his  father,  and  to  which  he  himself  be- 
longed, had  fallen  into  divisions,  in  the  course  of  his 
father's  administration.  These  divisions  had  con- 
tributed to  the  revolution  by  which  Mr.  Jefferson  was 
brought  into  power.  The  excitements  growing  out  of 
this  state  of  things  were  not  yet  allayed,  but  con- 
nected themselves,  as  all  domestic  questions  did,  with 
the  absorbing  questions  that  grew  out  of  the  foreign 
relations  of  the  country,  in  the  war  which  then  raged 
in  Europe,  and  threatened  to  draw  America  into  the 
vortex.  The  senators  of  Massachusetts  differed  in 
their  views  of  the  policy  required  by  the  emergency, 


33 

and  those  adopted  by  Mr.  Adams,  who  supported  the 
administration,  being  at  variance  with  the  opinions  of 
a  majority  of  his  constituents,  he  resigned  his  seat  in 
the  senate,  in  March,  1808. 

The  repose  from  political  engagements,  thus  af- 
forded him,  was  devoted  by  Mr.  Adams  to  the  farther 
prosecution  of  pursuits  in  which  he  was  already 
engaged,  and  which,  to  him,  were  scarcely  less  con- 
genial. His  literary  tastes  had  always  been  fondly 
and  assiduously  cultivated,  and,  for  a  public  man,  his 
habits  were  decidedly  studious.  On  the  death  of 
President  Willard,  in  1804,  several  of  the  influential 
friends  of  Harvard  College  had  urged  upon  Mr.  Ad- 
ams, to  allow  himself  to  be  considered  as  a  candidate 
for  the  presidency  of  the  University.  These  overtures 
he  declined;  but  in  the  following  year  it  was  deter- 
mined, by  the  corporation,  to  appoint  a  Professor  of 
Rhetoric  and  Oratory,  on  the  foundation  of  Mr.  Boyls- 
ton,  and  Mr.  Adams  was  chosen.  He  delivered  his 
inaugural  address  in  July,  1806,  and  continued  to 
discharge  the  duties  of  the  professorship,  by  the  deliv- 
ery of  a  course  of  lectures,  and  by  presiding  over  the 
public  exercises  in  declamation,  till  the  month  of  July, 
1809.  -It  was  at  this  time,  and  as  a  member  of  one 
of  the  younger  classes  at  college,  that  I  first  saw  Mr. 
Adams,  and  listened  to  his  well-remembered  voice, 
from  the  chair  of  instruction ;  little  anticipating  that, 
after  the  lapse  of  forty  years,  my  own  humble  voice 
5 


34 

would  be  heard,  in  the  performance  of  this  mournful 
office. 

Some  who  now  hear  me  will  recollect  the  deep 
interest  with  which  these  lectures  were  listened  to, 
not  merely  by  the  youthful  audience  for  which  they 
were  prepared,  but  by  numerous  voluntary  hearers 
from  the  neighborhood.  They  formed  an  era  in  the 
University;  and  were,  I  believe,  the  first  successful 
attempt,  in  this  country,  at  this  form  of  instruction 
in  any  department  of  literature.  They  were  collected 
and  published  in  two  volumes,  completing  the  theo- 
retical part  of  the  subject.  I  think  it  may  be  fairly 
said,  that  they  will  bear  a  favorable  comparison  with 
any  treatise,  on  the  subject,  at  that  time  extant  in 
our  language.  The  standard  of  excellence,  in  every 
branch  of  critical  learning,  has  greatly  advanced  in 
the  last  forty  years,  but  these  lectures  may  still  be 
read  with  pleasure  and  instruction.  Considered  as 
a  systematic  and  academical  treatise  upon  a  subject 
which  constituted  the  chief  part  of  the  intellectual 
education  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  these  lectures, 
rapidly  composed  as  they  were  delivered,  and  not 
revised  by  the  author  before  publication,  are  not  to 
be  regarded  in  the  light  of  a  standard  performance. 
But  let  any  statesman  or  jurist,  even  of  the  present 
day,  in  America  or  Europe, — whose  life,  like  Mr. 
Adams's,  has  been  actively  passed  in  professional 
and  political  engagements  at  home  and  abroad, — 


35 

attempt,  in  the  leisure  of  two  or  three  summers, — 
his  mind  filled  with  all  the  great  political  topics  of 
the  day, — to  prepare  a  full  course  of  lectures  on  any 
hranch  of  literature,  to  be  delivered  to  a  difficult  and 
scrutinizing,  though  in  part  a  youthful  audience,  and 
then  trust  them  to  the  ordeal  of  the  press,  and  he 
will  be  prepared  to  estimate  the  task  which  was  per- 
formed by  Mr.  Adams. 

From  these,  to  him,  not  distasteful  engagements, 
Mr.  Adams  was  soon  recalled  to  the  public  service. 
In  March,  1809,  he  was  nominated  by  President 
Madison  to  the  Court  of  St.  Petersburg,  and,  in  the 
summer  of  the  same  year,  returned  to  the  important 
court  which  he  had  visited  twenty-eight  years  before, 
in  his  boyhood,  as  secretary  to  Mr.  Dana.  He  came 
at  a  critical  juncture  of  affairs,  and  with  great  means 
and  occasions  of  usefulness.  The  whole  foreign  world 
was,  at  this  time,  shut  out  from  the  Continental 
Courts,  by  the  iron  rigor  of  the  system  of  Napo- 
leon. America,  though  little  known  at  the  Imperial 
Court,  was  regarded  with  interest,  as  a  rising  transat- 
lantic State  of  great  importance,  and  Mr.  Adams 
appeared  as  her  first  accredited  representative.  He 
was  master  of  the  two  foreign  languages  which, — to 
the  exclusion  of  the  native  Russian, — are  alone 
spoken  in  the  political  and  court  circles.  He  was 
thus  enabled  the  more  easily  to  form  relations  of 
more  than  ordinary  kindness  with  the  emperor  and 


36 

leading  members  of  the  imperial  government,  and  it 
is  well  understood  to  have  been  through  this  instru- 
mentality, that  the  emperor  was  led  to  offer  his 
mediation  to  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain, 
in  the  war  then  just  commenced.  The  mediation 
was  accepted  by  the  American  government,  and  Mr. 
Adams  was  appointed,  in  conjunction  with  Messrs. 
GaUatin  and  Bayard,  to  conduct  the  negotiation. 
Those  gentlemen  arrived  at  St.  Petersburg  in  July, 
1813.  The  Emperor  Alexander  was  absent  on  the 
great  campaign  of  that  year,  but  the  conferences  of 
the  American  commissioners  were  opened  with  Count 
Eomanzoff,  chancellor  of  the  empire.  The  British 
government  declined  to  negotiate  under  the  media- 
tion, and  Messrs.  Bayard  and  GaUatin  left  St.  Peters- 
burg in  January,  1814,  Mr.  Adams  remaining,  as 
resident  minister. 

But  Great  Britain,  although  nominally  declining 
to  negotiate  under  the  mediation,  accompanied  her 
refusal  with  an  offer  to  treat  for  peace  with  the 
United  States  directly,  either  at  Gottenburg  or 
London,  and  this  offer  was  accepted  by  the  American 
government,  the  preference  being  given  to  the  former 
place.  Mr.  Adams  was  accordingly  appointed,  in  joint 
commission  with  Messrs.  Bayard,  Clay,  and  Russell, 
to  whom  was  afterwards  added  Mr.  GaUatin,  to  nego- 
tiate for  peace  at  Gottenburg.  Mr.  Adams  received 
this  commission  in  April,  1814,  with  instructions  to 


37 

proceed  immediately  to  the  place  just  named.  He 
took  passage  from  Revel  in  the  first  vessel,  after  the 
breaking  up  of  the  ice ;  and  after  repeated  delay  and 
detention,  and  great  risk  from  the  same  cause,  he 
arrived  at  Stockholm  on  the  25th  of  May. 

He  there  learned  that  an  arrangement  had  been 
made  by  Messrs.  Bayard  and  Gallatin, — who  were  in 
London, — with  the  British  government,  by  which  the 
seat  of  negotiation  had  been  transferred  to  Ghent. 
An  American  sloop-of-war  was  then  at  Gottenburg, 
having,  as  a  cartel,  conveyed  Messrs.  Clay  and  Rus- 
sell to  that  place.  Mr.  Adams  accordingly  proceeded 
from  Stockholm  to  Gottenburg,  and,  embarking  with 
Mr.  Russell  on  board  the  sloop-of-war,  landed  from 
her  at  the  Texel,  and  thence  proceeded  by  land  to 
Ghent.  There  he  arrived  on  the  24th  of  June,  and 
on  that  day  six  months,  the  treaty  of  peace  was 
signed.  Mr.  Adams's  name  stands  first,  on  the  list 
of  the  negotiators. 

Mr.  Adams  had  been  informed  by  the  secretary  of 
state,  (Mr.  Monroe),  at  the  time  he  was  appointed 
under  the  mediation  of  the  emperor  of  Russia,  that, 
in  the  event  of  the  conclusion  of  peace,  it  was  the 
intention  of  President  Madison  to  nominate  him  as 
minister  to  London.  He  accordingly  went  to  Paris, 
and  was  there  during  the  presence  of  the  allied  mon- 
archs  and  their  armies,  and  in  the  Hundred  Days. 
He  was  joined  by  his  family  in  March,  1815.  Their 

260938 


38 

hardships  and  perils,  in  performing  the  journey  from 
St.  Petersburg  to  France,  in  that  time  of  universal 
commotion  and  uncertainty,  would  form  an  interesting 
narrative,  for  which,  however,  this  is  not  the  place. 
On  the  7th  of  May,  he  received  official  information  of 
his  appointment ;  and  although  the  ordinary  commu- 
nications between  the  two  countries  were  interrupted, 
and  the  passage  not  unattended  with  delay  and  diffi- 
culty, he  arrived  in  London  on  the  15th  of  May.  He 
immediately  engaged  with  his  associate  commission- 
ers, Messrs.  Clay  and  Gallatin,  in  negotiating  a  con- 
vention .of  commerce  with  Great  Britain,  which  was 
concluded  on  the  3d  of  July,  1815. 

Having  thus,  in  happy  coincidence  with  his  ven- 
erable father's  career,  cooperated  in  establishing  a 
peace  with  Great  Britain,  he  remained,  like  his  father, 
in  London,  for  two  years,  as  the  American  Minister  at 
that  court.  He  was  then,  in  1817,  invited  by  Pres- 
ident Monroe  to  return  to  America,  as  Secretary  of 
State  under  the  new  administration.  I  believe  it  was 
universally  admitted,  that  a  better  appointment  could 
not  have  been  made.  It  will  be  recollected,  by  many 
persons  present,  that  General  Jackson,  then  just  be- 
ginning to  exercise  great  political  influence  in  the 
country,  spoke  of  Mr.  Adams  "  as  the  fittest  person 
for  the  office ; — a  man  who  would  stand  by  the  coun- 
try in  the  hour  of  danger." 

But  the  hour  of  danger  did  not  arrive  at  home  or 


39 

abroad  during  the  administration  of  Mr.  Monroe, 
which  continued  through  two  terms  of  office,  for 
the  whole  of  which  Mr.  Adams  was  Secretary  of 
State.  During  this  entire  period,  he  maintained  un- 
broken the  most  friendly  relations  with  Mr.  Monroe, 
and  gave  a  steady  and  efficient  support  to  his  admin- 
istration. The  office  of  Secretary  of  State  is,  at  all 
times,  one  of  immense  labor ;  never  more  so,  than  in 
the  hands  of  Mr.  Adams.  I  presume  no  person  in 
high  office  ever  derived  less  assistance  from  those 
under  him,  or  did  more  work  with  his  own  hands. 
No  opinion,  for  which  he  was  responsible,  was  ever 
taken  on  trust,  upon  the  examination  of  others ;  no 
paper  of  any  consequence,  to  which  he  was  to  sign 
his  name,  was  the  product  of  another  man's  mind.  It 
would  be  foreign  from  my  purpose,  did  time  admit,  to 
discuss  the  measures  of  public  interest  which  engaged 
the  attention  of  the  government  and  people  of  the 
country  during  Mr.  Monroe's  two  terms  of  service  in 
the  presidency.  His  administration  will  ever  be  mem- 
orable, in  our  political  history,  for  the  substantial 
fusion  of  the  two  great  political  parties,  which  led  to 
his  unanimous  reelection  in  1821.  It  will  also  be 
remembered  for  the  acquisition  of  Florida,  which  was 
ceded  by  Spain  as  an  indemnification  for  spoliations/ 
on  our  commerce.  The  treaty  for  this  cession  was 
negotiated,  with  consummate  ability,  by  Mr.  Adams, 
and  signed  on  the  22d  of  February,  1819.  The  inde- 


40 

pendence  of  the  Spanish  provinces  on  this  continent 
was  also  recognized  under  this  administration, — a 
measure  rather  assented  to  than  warmly  approved 
by  Mr.  Adams,  for  he  doubted  their  capacity  for  self- 
government;  an  opinion,  of  which  the  soundness  is 
abundantly  justified  by  passing  events. 

Out  of  the  subsidence  of  the  old  parties,  sprung  the 
variously  contested  presidential  election  of  1824.  For 
a  quarter  of  a  century,  a  succession  had  been  estab- 
lished from  the  department  of  state  to  the  presidency. 
There  were  certainly  good  reasons,  on  the  present 
occasion,  why  this  practice  should  not  be  broken  in 
upon ;  but,  in  addition  to  the  successful  candidate  for 
the  vice-presidency,  the  south  and  the  west  brought 
three  presidential  candidates  into  the  field,  who  divided 
the  electoral  vote,  though  unequally,  with  Mr.  Adams. 
The  whole  number  of  votes  was  two  hundred  and  sixty- 
one,  of  which  General  Jackson  received  ninety-nine, 
and  Mr.  Adams  eighty-four.  But  I  think  it  was  cal- 
culated, at  the  time,  that  Mr.  Adams's  vote,  in  the 
primary  assemblies  of  the  people,  was  not  less  than  his 
rival's.  The  choice  devolved  upon  the  house  of  rep- 
resentatives, for  the  second  time  since  the  formation 
of  the  present  government.  The  first  occasion  was  in 
1801,  when  the  constitution  itself  had  nearly  sunk 
under  the  struggle,  which  was  prolonged  through  the 
second  day,  and  to  thfi  thirty- sixth  balloting.  On  the 
present  occasion,  the  elements  of  a  struggle  equally 


41 

perilous  were  thought  to  exist ;  and  calculation  was 
entirely  at  fault  as  to  the  result.  The  choice  was  de- 
cided on  the  first  ballot,  and  fell  upon  Mr.  Adams. 
It  was  made  known  to  him  in  advance  of  the  official 
communication,  by  a  personal  and  political  friend, 
who  happened  to  be  present ;  and  who,  to  my  question, 
a  few  weeks  after,  how  he  received  the  intelligence, 
answered,  "  like  a  philosopher." 

Mr.  Adams's  administration  was,  in  its  principles 
and  policy,  a  continuation  of  Mr.  Monroe's.  The 
special  object  which  he  proposed  to  himself  was,  to 
bind  the  distant  parts  of  the  country  together,  and 
promote  their  mutual  prosperity,  by  increased  facili- 
ties of  communication.  Unlike  Mr.  Monroe's,  Mr. 
Adams's  administration  encountered,  from  the  outset, 
a  formidable  and  harassing  opposition.  It  is  now,  I 
believe,  generally  admitted  to  have  been  honest,  able, 
and  patriotic.  This  praise  has  lately  been  accorded 
to  it,  in  the  most  generous  terms,  by  distinguished 
individuals,  in  Congress  and  elsewhere,  who  were  not 
numbered  among  its  supporters.  That  the  president, 
himself,  devoted  to  the  public  business  the  utmost 
stretch  of  his  Herculean  powers  of  thought  and  labor, 
hardly  needs  to  be  told. 

Two  incidents  occurred  during  his  administration, 

which  ought  not  to  be  wholly  passed  over  in  this 

hasty  sketch : — one  was  the  visit  of  Lafayette,  whom 

Mr.  Adams  received,  at  the  presidential  mansion,  with 

6 


42 

an  address  of  extraordinary  eloquence  and  beauty; 
the  other,  the  death  of  his  venerable  father,  spared 
to  the  patriarchal  age  of  ninety-one,  and  to  see  his 
son  raised  to  the  presidency,  and  dying,  with  his 
ancient  associate,  Jefferson,  within  a  few  hours  of 
each  other,  on  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  Indepen- 
dence,— which  they  had  been  associated  in  declaring. 

At  the  close  of  the  term  of  four  years,  for  which 
Mr.  Adams  was  elected,  General  Jackson  was  chosen 
to  succeed  him.  Mr.  Adams,  I  doubt  not,  left  the 
office  with  a  lighter  heart  than  he  entered  it.  It  was, 
at  this  time,  his  purpose, — as  he  informed  me  him- 
self,— on  retiring  from  office,  to  devote  himself  to 
literary  labors,  and  especially  to  writing  the  history 
of  his  father's  life  and  times.  Some  commencement 
was  made,  by  him,  of  the  preliminary  labors  requisite 
for  this  great  undertaking.  He  was,  however,  though 
past  the  meridian  of  life,  in  good  health.  He  pos- 
sessed an  undiminished  capacity  of  physical  and  in- 
tellectual action.  He  had  an  experience  of  affairs, 
larger  and  more  various  than  any  other  man  in 
America ;  and  it  was  felt  by  the  public,  that  he  ought 
to  be  induced,  if  possible,  to  return  to  the  political 
service  of  the  country.  He  was  accordingly  chosen, 
at  the  next  congressional  election,  to  represent  the 
people  of  his  native  district,  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives of  the  United  States. 

It  was,  perhaps,  a  general  impression  among  his 


personal  friends,  that,  in  yielding  to  this  call,  he  had 
not  chosen  wisely  for  his  happiness  or  fame.  It  was 
a  step  never  before  taken  by  a  retiring  chief  magis- 
trate. The  experience  and  wisdom  of  his  predeces- 
sors had  often  exerted  a  salutary  influence  over  public 
opinion,  for  the  very  reason  that  their  voice  was 
heard  only  from  the  seclusion  of  private  life,  by  those 
who  sought  their  counsel.  Mr.  Adams  was  about  to 
expose  himself  to  the  violence  of  political  warfare, 
not  always  conducted  with  generosity  on  the  floor  of 
Congress.  But  in  deciding  to  obey  the  call  of  his 
constituents,  he  followed,  I  am  confident,  not  so  much 
the  strong  bent  of  his  inclination,  and  the  fixed  habit 
of  his  life,  as  an  inward,  all- controlling  sense  of  duty. 
He  was  conscious  of  his  capacity  to  be  useful,  and  his 
work  was  not  yej;  done.  Besides,  he  needed  no  indul- 
gence, he  asked  no  favor,  he  feared  no  opposition. 

He  carried  into  Congress  the  diligence,  punctu- 
ality, and  spirit  of  labor,  which  were  his  second — I 
had  almost  said  his  first — nature.  My  seat  was,  for 
two  years,  by  his  side;  and  it  would  have  scarcely 
more  surprised  me  to  miss  one  of  the  marble  col- 
umns of  the  hall  from  its  pedestal,  than  to  see  his 
chair  empty.  The  two  great  political  questions  of  the 
day  were  those  which  related  to  the  protective  and 
financial  systems.  He  was  placed,  by  the  speaker  of 
the  House,  at  the  head  of  the  Committee  on  Manu- 
factures. He  was  friendly  to  the  policy  of  giving  our 


44 

rising  establishments  a  moderate  protection  against 
the  irregular  pressure  of  foreign  competition.  Be- 
lieving that  manufacturing  pursuits, — as  the  great 
school  of  mechanical  skill, — are  an  important  ele- 
ment of  national  prosperity,  he  thought  it  unwise  to 
allow  the  compensation  of  labor  in  this  department 
to  be  brought  down  to  the  starvation  standard  of 
Europe.  He  was  also  a  firm  and  efficient  champion 
of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  then  subsisting 
under  a  charter  of  Congress,  and,  up  to  that  time, 
conducted,  as  he  thought,  with  integrity.  On  these, 
and  all  the  other  topics  of  the  day,  he  took  an  active 
part,  employing  himself  with  assiduity  in  the  commit- 
tee room,  preparing  elaborate  reports,  and,  occasion- 
ally, though  not  frequently,  pouring  out  the  affluence 
of  his  mind  in  debate. 

I  shall,  perhaps,  be  pardoned,  for  introducing  here 
a  slight  personal  recollection,  which  serves,  in  some 
degree,  to  illustrate  his  habits.  The  sessions  of  the 
two  last  days  of  (I  think)  the  twenty- third  Congress 
were  prolonged,  the  one  for  nineteen,  and  the  other 
for  seventeen  hours.  At  the  close  of  the  last  day's 
session,  he  remained  in  the  hall  of  the  house,  the 
last  seated  member  of  the  body.  One  after  another 
of  the  members  had  gone  home ;  many  of  them,  for 
hours.  The  hall, — brilliantly  lighted  up,  and  gaily 
attended,  as  was,  and  perhaps  is  still,  the  custom  at 
the  beginning  of  the  last  evening  of  a  session, — 


45 

had  become  cold,  dark,  and  cheerless.  Of  the  mem- 
bers who  remained,  to  prevent  the  public  business 
from  dying  for  want  of  a  quorum,  most,  but  himself, 
were  sinking  from  exhaustion,  although  they  had 
probably  taken  their  meals  at  the  usual  hours,  in  the 
course  of  the  day.  After  the  adjournment,  I  went  up 
to  his  seat,  to  join  company  with  him  homeward; 
and,  as  I  knew  he  came  to  the  house  at  eight  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  and  it  was  then  past  midnight,  I 
expressed  a  hope  that  he  had  taken  some  refreshment 
in  the  course  of  the  day.  He  said  he  had  not  left  his 
seat,  but,  holding  up  a  bit  of  hard  bread  in  his  fingers, 
gave  me  to  understand  in  what  way  he  had  sustained 
nature. 

Such  was  his  course  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, up  to  the  year  1835,  during  which  I  was  the 
daily  witness  of  it,  as  an  humble  associate  member. 
Had  he  retired  from  Congress  at  that  time,  it  would 
have  been,  perhaps,  rather  with  a  reputation  brought 
to  the  house,  than  achieved  on  the  floor ;  a  reputation 
"  enough  to  fill  the  ambition  of  a  common  man,"  nay, 
of  a  very  uncommon  one ;  but  it  would  probably  have 
been  thought  that,  surpassing  most  others,  he  had 
hardly  equalled  himself.  But  from  this  time  forward, 
for  ten  years,  (1835-1845,)  he  assumed  a  position 
in  a  great  degree  new,  and  put  forth'  a  wonderful 
increase  of  energy  and  power.  Some  of  the  former 
questions,  which  had  long  occupied  Congress,  had 


46 

been,  at  least  for  the  time,  disposed  of,  and  new  ones 
came  up,  which  roused  Mr.  Adams  to  a  higher  action 
of  his  faculties  than  he  had  yet  displayed.  He  was 
now  sixty-eight  years  of  age, — a  time  of  life,  I  need 
not  say,  at  which,  in  most  cases,  the  firmest  frame 
gives  way,  and  the  most  ardent  temper  cools ;  hut  the 
spirit  of  Mr.  Adams, — bold  and  indomitable  as  his 
whole  life  showed  it  to  be, — blazed  forth,  from  this 
time  forward,  for  ten  years,  with  a  fervor  and  strength 
which  astonished  his  friends,  and  stands,  as  I  think, 
almost,  if  not  quite,  without  a  parallel.  I  do  not  for- 
get the  limits  prescribed  to  me  by  the  circumstances 
under  which  I  speak ;  but  no  one,  capable  of  estimat- 
ing the  noblest  traits  of  character,  can  wish  me  to 
slur  over  this  period  of  Mr.  Adams's  life ;  no  one,  but 
must  be  touched  with  the  spectacle  which,  day  after 
day,  and  month  after  month,  and  session  after  session, 
was  exhibited  by  him,  to  whom  had  now  been  accorded, 
by  universal  consent,  the  title  of  the  "  old  man  elo- 
quent ; " — and  far  more  deserving  of  it  he  was,  than 
the  somewhat  frigid  rhetorician  on  whom  it  was  ori- 
ginally bestowed.  There  he  sat,  the  deepest-stricken 
in  years,  but,  of  the  whole  body,  the  individual  most 
capable  of  physical  endurance  and  intellectual  effort; 
his  bare  head  erect,  while  younger  men  drooped ;  "  his 
peremptory,  eagle-sighted  eye  "  unquenched,  both  by 
day  and  by  night : 


intrepidus  vultu,  meruitque  timer! 


Non  metuens. 


It  is  unnecessary  to  state  that  the  new  questions,  to 
which  I  refer,  were  those  connected  with  slavery.  On 
no  great  question,  perhaps,  has  the  progress  of  public 
opinion  been  more  decided,  both  in  Europe  and  Amer- 
ica, than  on  this  subject.  It  is  but  a  little  more  than  a 
century  since  England  eagerly  stipulated  with  Spain 
for  the  right  to  supply  the  Spanish  colonies  with  slaves 
from  Africa ;  and  the  carrying  trade,  from  the  same 
ill-fated  coasts  to  our  own  Southern  States,  then  colo- 
nies, was  conducted  by  the  merchants  and  navigators 
of  our  own  New  England.  "Within  the  present  gener- 
ation, we  have  seen  the  slave  trade  denounced  as  a 
capital  felony  in  both  countries.  I  am  not  aware  that 
any  discussion  of  this  subject,  of  a  nature  powerfully 
to  affect  the  public  mind,  took  place  in  Congress,  till 
full  thirty  years  after  the  adoption  of  the  constitution. 
It  then  arose  on  occasion  of  the  admission  of  the  State 
of  Missouri  into  the  Union,  and  on  the  proposition  to 
incorporate  into  the  constitution  of  that  State  the 
principle  of  the  immortal  ordinance  of  1787,  for  the 
organization  of  the  territory  northwest  of  the  Ohio, 
viz.,  "  There  shah1  be  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary 
servitude  in  the  said  territory,  otherwise  than  in  the 
punishment  of  crimes,  whereof  the  party  shall  be  duly 
convicted."  Mr.  Adams  was  in  the  department  of 
state  at  the  time  of  the  admission  of  Missouri,  and 
was  not  called  upon  to  take  any  part  in  the  discussion. 

The  general  agitation  of  the  subject  in  the  commu- 


48 

nity  at  large  dates  from  a  still  more  recent  period, 
commencing  about  the  time  of  Mr.  Adams's  accession 
to  the  presidency.  It  was  animated,  no  doubt,  by  the 
movement  which  took  place  about  the  same  time  in  * 
Great  Britain,  and  which,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years, 
resulted  in  that  most  illustrious  act  of  Christian  be- 
nevolence, by  which,  in  a  single  day,  eight  hundred 
thousand  fellow-beings  passed  from  a  state  of  bondage 
to  one  of  unconditional  freedom,  and  that  without  a 
cry  or  a  gesture  that  threatened  the  public  peace. 

The  public  opinic-n  of  the  United  States,  sympa- 
thizing as  it  must  at  all  times  with  that  of  the  other 
great  branches  of  the  human  family,  was  deeply  inter- 
ested in  the  progress  of  these  discussions  abroad,  and 
received  a  powerful  impulse  from  then:  result.  With 
the  organized  agitation,  in  the  free  States,  of  the 
questions  connected  with  slavery,  Mr.  Adams  did  not, 
as  a  citizen  I  believe,  intimately  connect  himself. 
Toward  their  introduction  into  Congress,  as  subjects 
of  free  discussion,  he  contributed  more  than  any  other 
man;  than  all  others  united.  He  approached  the 
subject,  however,  with  a  caution  inspired  by  a  pro- 
found sense  of  its  difficulty  and  delicacy.  I  know 
it  to  have  been  his  opinion,  as  late  as  1828,  that, 
for  the  presidency  and  vice-presidency,  the  candi- 
dates ought  to  be  selected  from  the  two  great  sec- 
tions of  the  country.  His  first  act  as  a  member  of 
Congress,  in  1831,  was  to  present  the  memorial  of 


49 

the  "  Friends,"  of  Philadelphia,  praying,  among  other 
things,  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia ;  but,  while  he  paid  the  highest  tribute  to 
the  motives  of  the  petitioners,  he  avowed  himself  not 
prepared  to  grant  the  prayer  of  the  memorial.  But 
whether  it  was  that  his  own  opinions  and  feelings  had 
shared  the  movement  of  the  general  mind  of  the  age 
on  this  subject ;  or  that  he  perceived,  in  the  course  of 
a  few  years,  that  the  time  had  come  when  it  must  be 
met  and  discussed  in  all  its  aspects ;  certain  it  is  that, 
from  the  time  the  right  of  petition  was  drawn  dis- 
tinctly in  question,  Mr.  Adams  placed  himself  boldly 
on  that  ground,  and,  from  that  time  forward,  stood 
firmly  at  his  post,  as  the  acknowledged  congressional 
leader.  No  labor  was  too  great,  no  attention  too 
minute,  to  be  bestowed  by  him  in  receiving  and  pre- 
senting the  petitions  which  were  poured  into  his  hands 
from  every  part  of  the  country.  No  strength  or  vio- 
lence of  opposition,  or  menaces  of  danger,  deterred 
him  from  the  office  he  had  assumed ;  and  every  at- 
tempt to  dishearten  and  silence  him  but  established, 
the  more  firmly,  the  moral  ascendency  which  he  had 
acquired  in  the  house.  His  warmest  opponents, 
while  they  condemned  his  policy,  admitted  his  sincer- 
ity, admired  his  courage,  and  owned  his  power.  His 
rising  to  address  the  house  became  the  signal  for 
mute  and  respectful  attention ;  the  distant  clustered 
round  his  seat ;  the  listless  and  the  idle  gave  heed, 
7 


50 

and  every  word  that  fell  from  his  lips  was  listened  to 
almost  like  the  response  of  an  oracle.  I  say  this  alike 
to  the  honor  of  the  living  and  the  dead. 

I  may  be  permitted  to  recall  to  your  recollection  the 
opening  of  the  26th  Congress,  in  December,  1839, 
when,  in  consequence  of  a  two-fold  delegation  from 
New  Jersey,  the  house  was  unable,  for  some  time,  to 
complete  its  organization,  and  presented,  to  the  coun- 
try and  the  world,  the  perilous  and  discreditable  aspect 
of  the  assembled  representatives  of  the  people  unable 
to  form  themselves  into  a  constitutional  body.  Fully 
to  enter  into  the  scene,  it  must  be  remembered  that 
there  are  no  two  ideas  more  deeply  imbedded  in  the 
Anglo-Saxon  mind  than  these ; — one,  the  omnipotence 
of  every  sovereign  parliamentary,  and  congressional 
body,  (I  mean,  of  course,  within  the  limits  of  its  con- 
stitutional competence,)  and  the  other,  the  absolute 
inability  of  one  of  these  omnipotent  bodies  to  make 
the  slightest  movement,  or  perform  the  most  indiffer- 
ent act,  except  through  a  formal  expression  of  its  will 
by  its  duly  appointed  organs.  Now,  on  first  assembling, 
the  House  has  no  officers,  and  the  clerk  of  the  pre- 
ceding Congress  acts,  by  usage,  as  chairman  of  the 
body,  till  a  speaker  is  chosen.  On  this  occasion,  after 
reaching  the  State  of  New  Jersey,  the  acting  clerk 
declined  to  proceed  in  calling  the  roll,  and  refused  to 
entertain  any  of  the  motions  which  were  made  for  the 
purpose  of  extricating  the  House  from  its  embarrass- 


51 

ment.  Many  of  the  ablest  and  most  judicious  members 
had  addressed  the  House  in  vain,  and  there  was  noth- 
ing but  confusion  and  disorder  in  prospect.  Toward 
the  close  of  the  fourth  day,  Mr.  Adams  rose,  and  ex- 
pectation waited  on  his  words.  Having,  by  a  powerful 
appeal,  brought  the  yet  unorganized  assembly  to  a 
perception  of  its  hazardous  position,  he  submitted  a 
motion  requiring  the  acting  clerk  to  proceed  in  calling 
the  roll.  This  and  similar  motions  had  already  been 
made  by  other  members.  The  difficulty  was,  that 
the  acting  clerk  declined  to  entertain  them.  Accord- 
ingly, Mr.  Adams  was  immediately  interrupted  by  a 
burst  of  voices  demanding,  "  How  shall  the  question 
be  put?"  "Who  will  put  the  question?"  The  voice 
of  Mr.  Adams  was  heard  above  the  tumult,  "  I  intend 
to  put  the  question  myself!"  That  word  brought 
order  out  of  chaos.  There  was  the  master-mind.  A 
distinguished  member  from  South  Carolina,  (Mr. 
Rhett,)  moved  that  Mr.  Adams  himself  should  act  as 
chairman  of  the  body  till  the  House  was  organized, 
and,  suiting  the  action  to  the  word,  himself  put  the 
motion  to  the  House.  It  prevailed  unanimously,  and 
Mr.  Adams  was  conducted  to  the  chair,  amidst  the 
irrepressible  acclamations  of  the  spectators.  Well  did 
Mr.  Wise,  of  Virginia,  say,  "  Sir,  I  regard  it  as  the 
proudest  hour  of  your  life ;  and  if,  when  you  shall  be 
gathered  to  your  fathers,"  (that  time,  alas,  is  now 
come !)  "I  were  asked  to  select  the  words  which,  in 


52 

my  judgment,  are  best  calculated  to  give  at  once  the 
character  of  the  man,  I  would  inscribe  upon  your  tomb 
this  sentence,  '  I  will  put  the  question  myself.' " 

And  thus  it  was  that  he  was  established,  at  last,  in  a 
relation  to  the  House,  which  no  man  before  had  ever 
filled.  The  differences  of  opinion  of  course  were 
great ;  the  shock  of  debate  often  violent ;  but  it  was 
impossible  not  to  respect  the  fearless,  conscientious, 
unparalleled  old  man.  Into  this  feeling  at  last  every 
other  emotion  subsided;  and  I  know  not  to  which 
party  the  greater  praise  is  due, — the  aged  statesman 
who  had  so  nobly  earned  this  homage,  or  the  generous 
opponents  by  whom  it  was  cheerfully  paid. 

Nor  was  this  spontaneous  difference  a  mere  per- 
sonal sentiment,  confined  to  associates  on  the  floor 
of  Congress.  It  extended  to  the  People.  In  the 
summer  of  1843,  Mr.  Adams  was  invited  to  go  to 
Cincinnati,  and  lay  the  corner-stone  of  an  Observa- 
tory, about  to  be  built  by  the  liberal  subscriptions  of 
the  friends  of  science  in  that  city.  His  journey,  from 
Massachusetts  to  Ohio,  was  a  triumphal  procession. 
New  York  poured  out  the  population  of  her  cities 
and  villages  to  bid  him  welcome.  Since  the  visit  of 
Lafayette,  the  country  had  seen  nothing  like  it.  And 
if  I  wished  to  prove  to  the  young  men  of  the  country, 
by  the  most  instructive  instances,  that  the  only  true 
greatness  is  that  which  rests  on  a  moral  basis,  I 
would  point  them  to  the  ex-president  of  the  United 


53 

States,  on  the  occasion  referred  to,  and  the  ex-king 
of  the  French : — the  one,  retiring  to  private  life,  an 
unsuccessful,  but  not  discredited,  candidate  for  reelec- 
tion to  the  chair  of  state ;  ruling,  in  a  serene  old  age, 
in  the  respect  and  affection  of  his  fellow-citizens; 
borne,  at  seventy-six,  almost  on  their  shoulders, 
from  one  joyous  reception  to  another:  the  other, 
sovereign,  but  yesterday,  of  a  kingdom  stretching  from 
Mount  Atlas  to  the  Rhine ;  master  of  an  army  to  bid 
defiance  to  Europe ;  with  a  palace  for  every  month,  and 
a  revenue  of  three  millions  of  francs  for  every  day  in  the 
year ;  and  to-day,  (let  me  not  seem  to  trample  on  the 
fallen,  as  I  utter  the  words,)  stealing  with  the  aged 
partner  of  his  throne  and  of  his  sorrows,  in  sordid 
disguise,  from  his  capital;  without  one  of  that 
mighty  host  to  strike  a  blow  in  his  defence,  if  not 
from  loyalty,  at  least  from  compassion ;  not  daring  to 
look  round,  even  to  see  if  the  child  were  safe,  on 
whom  he  had  just  bestowed  the  mockery  of  a  crown ; 
and  compelled  to  beg  a  few  francs,  from  the  guards 
at  his  palace-door,  to  help  him  to  flee  from  his 
kingdom ! 

But  I  have  wandered  from  my  theme,  and  must 
hasten  with  you,  to  contemplate  a  far  different  termi- 
nation of  a  more  truly  glorious  career.  On  the  20th 
of  November,  1846,  Mr.  Adams,  being  then  at  the 
house  of  his  son,  in  Boston,  and  preparing  for  his 
departure  for  Washington,  walked  out,  with  a  friend, 


to  visit  the  new  Medical  College,  and  was  struck  with 
palsy  by  the  way.     He  recovered  strength  enough  to 
return  in  a  few  weeks  to  Washington,  but  it  was,  in 
his  own  estimation,  the  stroke  of  death.     His  jour- 
nal,— kept  with  regularity  for  more  than  half  a  cen- 
tury,— stops  that  day ;  and  when,  after  an  interval  of 
nearly  four  months,  he  resumed  it,  it  was  with  the 
caption  of  "  Posthumous  Memoir."     Having  recorded 
the  event  of  the  20th  of  November,  and  his  subse- 
quent confinement,  he  adds,  "  From  that  hour  I  date 
my  decease,  and   consider  myself,  for   every  useful 
purpose  to  myself  and  fellow-creatures,  dead;    and 
hence  I  call   this,  and  what  I  may  hereafter  write, 
a  posthumous   memoir."     From   this  time   forward, 
though   his   attendance  was   regularly  given  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  he  rarely  took  part  in  the 
debates.     His  summer  was  passed,  as  usual,  in  his 
native  village.     In  the   month  of  October  last,  he 
made  a  visit  to  Cambridge,  as  chairman  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  the  Observatory, — an  institution  in  which 
he  ever  took  the  greatest  interest,  and  of  which  he 
was,  from  the  first,  a  most  liberal  benefactor, — and 
shortly  afterwards  drew  up  the  admirable  letter,  in 
reference  to  this  establishment,  and  the  promotion 
generally  of  astronomical  science. — a  letter  which  at- 
tracted universal  attention  a  few  weeks  since,  in  the 
public  prints.     This  was  the  last  letter,  I  believe,  of 
considerable    length,   wholly  written   with   his   own 


55 

hand.  He  returned  to  Washington  in  the  month  of 
November,  and  resumed  his  usual  attendance  in  the 
Capitol ;  but  the  sands  were  nearly  run  out. 

Never  did  a  noble  life  terminate  in  a  more  beauti- 
ful close.  On  Sunday,  the  20th  of  February,  he 
appeared  in  unusual  health.  He  attended  public 
worship,  in  the  forenoon,  at  the  Capitol,  and,  in  the 
afternoon,  at  St.  John's  Church.  At  nine  o'clock  in 
the  evening  he  retired,  with  his  wife,  to  his  library, 
where  she  read  to  him  a  sermon  of  Bishop  Wilber- 
force,  on  Time, — hovering,  as  he  was,  on  the  verge  of 
Eternity.  This  was  the  last  night  which  he  passed 
beneath  his  own  roof.  On  Monday,  the  21st,  he 
rose  at  his  usual  very  early  hour,  and  engaged  in  his 
accustomed  occupations  with  his  pen.  An  extraordi- 
nary alacrity  pervaded  his  movements ;  the  cheerful 
step  with  which  he  ascended  the  Capitol  was 
remarked  by  his  attendants ;  and,  at  about  half-past 
twelve,  as  he  seemed  rising  in  his  seat,  he  was  struck 
with  death.  His  last  audible  words  were,  "  This  is 
the  end  of  earth," — "I  am  composed."  He  con- 
tinued to  breathe,  but  without  apparent  conscious- 
ness, till  the  evening  of  the  twenty- third  instant,  and 
died  in  the  Capitol. 

Go  there,  politician,  and  behold  a  fall  worth  all  the 
triumphs  the  Capitol  ever  witnessed  !  Go  there,  scep- 
tic, you  who  believe  that  matter  and  mind  are  one, 
and  both  are  a  "  kneaded  clod,"  and  explain  how  it  is 


56 

that,  within  that  aged  and  shattered  frame,  just  sink- 
ing into  the  dust  from  which  it  was  taken,  there  can 
dwell  a  principle  of  thought  and  feeling  endued  with 
such  a  divine  serenity  and  courage,  and  composed, 
because  it  feels,  that  the  end  of  earth  is  the  beginning 
of  heaven ! 

Thus  fell,  at  the  post  of  duty,  one  of  the  most 
extraordinary  men  that  have  appeared  among  us,  not 
so  much  dying,  as  translated  from  the  field  of  his 
earthly  labors  and  honors  to  a  higher  sphere.  I  have 
left  myself  little  space  or  strength  to  add  any  thing  to 
the  narrative  of  his  life  by  way  of  portraying  his  char- 
acter. Some  attempt,  however,  of  that  kind,  you  will 
expect. 

Mr.  Adams  was  a  man  of  the  rarest  intellectual  en- 
dowments. His  perception  was  singularly  accurate 
and  penetrating.  Whenever  he  undertook  to  investi- 
gate a  subject,  he  was  sure  to  attain  the  clearest  ideas 
of  it  which  its  nature  admitted.  What  he  knew,  he 
knew  with  great  precision.  His  argumentative  powers 
were  of  the  highest  order,  and  admirably  trained. 
When  he  entered  the  field  of  controversy,  it  was  a 
strong  and  a  bold  man  that  voluntarily  encountered  him 
a  second  time.  His  memory  was  wonderful.  Every 
thing  he  had  seen  or  read,  every  occurrence  in  his 
long  and  crowded  life,  was  at  all  times  present  to  his 


57 

recollection.  This  was  the  more  remarkable,  as  he 
had,  almost  from  the  age  of  boyhood,  followed  the 
practice  of  recording,  from  day  to  day,  every  incident 
of  importance, — a  practice  thought  to  weaken  the 
memory.  This  wonderful  power  of  recollection  was 
aided  by  the  strict  method  with  which  he  pursued  his 
studies  for  the  earlier  part  of  his  life,  and  until  weighed 
down  by  the  burdens  of  executive  office,  on  entering 
the  department  of  state.  He  had,  withal,  a  diligence 
which  nothing  could  weary.  He  rose  at  the  earliest 
hour,  and  had  an  occupation  for  every  moment  of  the 
day. 

Without  having  made  a  distinct  pursuit  of  any  one 
branch  of  knowledge,  he  was  probably  possessed  of  a 
greater  amount  and  variety  of  accurate  information 
than  any  other  man  in  the  country.  It  follows,  of 
course,  that  he  had  pushed  his  inquiries  far  beyond 
the  profession  to  which  he  was  bred,  or  that  reading 
which  belongs  directly  to  the  publicist  and  the  states- 
man. Few  among  us  drank  so  deeply  at  the  ancient 
fountains.  To  his  acquaintance  with  the  language 
and  literature  of  Greece  and  Rome,  he  added  the  two 
leading  languages  of  continental  Europe,  of  which  the 
French  was  a  second  mother-tongue.  The  orations 
of  Demosthenes  and  Cicero,  the  philosophical  and 
rhetorical  works  of  Cicero  ;  the  critical  works  of  Aris- 
totle and  Quintilian;  the  historical  works  of  Taci- 
tus, (all  of  which  he  had  translated  at  school ;)  a  con- 
8 


58 

siderable  part  of  the  poems  of  Ovid,  whom  he  greatly 
admired;  the  satires  of  Juvenal;  in  French,  Pascal, 
Moliere,  and  La  Fontaine ;  in  English,  Shakespeare, 
his  greatest  favorite,  with  Milton,  Dryden,  Pope,  and 
Burke,— were  stamped  upon  his  memory.  These 
were  studies  which  he  never  wholly  sacrificed  to  the 
calls  of  business,  however  urgent.  The  office  of  Pres- 
ident of  the  United  States,  at  least  as  filled  by  Mr. 
Adams,  is  one  of  extreme  labor,  but  he  found  time, 
amidst  its  incessant  calls  and  interruptions,  to  address 
a  series  of  letters  to  his  youngest  son, — some  of  them, 
written  in  the  busiest  period  of  the  session, — contain- 
ing an  elaborate  analysis  of  several  of  the  orations  of 
Cicero,  designed  to  aid  the  young  man  in  the  perusal 
of  this,  his  favorite  author.  At  the  close  of  one  of 
these  letters,  (as  if  it  were  impossible  to  fill  up  his 
industrious  day,)  he  adds,  that  he  is  reading  Evelyn's 
Sylva  with  great  delight.  Some  of  these  letters  would 
be  thought  a  good  day's  work  for  a  scholar  by  pro- 
fession. But  Mr.  Adams  wrote  with  a  rapidity  and 
ease,  which  would  hardly  have  been  suspected  from 
his  somewhat  measured  style.  Notwithstanding  the 
finish  of  his  sentences,  they  were,  like  Gibbon's, 
struck  off  at  once,  and  never  had  to  be  retouched. 
I  remember  that  once,  as  I  sat  by  his  side  in  the 
House  of  Kepresentatives,  I  was  so  much  struck 
with  the  neatness  and  beauty  of  the  manuscript  of 
a  report  of  great  length  which  he  had  brought  into 


59 

the  House,  and  in  which,  as  I  turned  over  the  leaves, 
I  could  not  perceive  an  interlineation,  that  I  made  a 
remark  to  him  on  the  subject.  He  told  me  it  was  the 
first  draft,  and  had  never  heen  copied ;  and,  in  that 
condition,  it  was  sent  to  the  press,  though  sure  to  be 
the  subject  of  the  severest  criticism. 

To  his  profession,  Mr.  Adams  gave  but  a  few  years 
of  his  life,  and  those  not  exclusively.  He  had,  how- 
ever, mastered  the  elementary  learning  and  the  forms 
of  the  law,  and,  in  the  fourth  year  after  entering  upon 
the  practice,  supported  himself  by  his  professional 
earnings.  In  later  life,  he  appeared  at  the  bar,  on  a 
few  important  occasions,  with  distinction  and  success. 
During  his  residence  in  Russia,  Mr.  Madison  made 
him  an  offer  of  a  seat  on  the  Bench  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  which  he  declined.  As  a 
public  speaker,  whether  at  the  senate  or  the  bar,  he 
was  grave,  clear,  and  impressive, — formidable  in  retort, 
powerful  in  invective, — sometimes  giving  the  reins  to 
a  playful  fancy,  and,  when  the  subject  and  occasion 
admitted,  vehement  and  impassioned, — neglectful  of 
the  lighter  graces  of  manner,  but,  at  all  times,  rivet- 
ing the  attention  of  his  audience.  When,  at  the  age 
of  seventy-four,  he  came  into  the  Supreme  Court  at 
Washington,  as  the  volunteer  counsel  of  the  Africans 
on  board  the  Amistad,  he  displayed  a  forensic  talent, 
which  would  have  added  lustre  to  the  brightest  name 
in  the  profession. 


60 

But  it  is  as  a  politician,  as  a  statesman,  and  a  chief 
magistrate,  that  he  will  hereafter  be  chiefly  remem- 
bered in  the  annals  of  the  country ;  and  it  will  be 
among  those  who  have  served  her  the  longest,  the 
most  zealously,  the  most  ably,  the  most  conscien- 
tiously. Breathing,  as  we  do,  an  atmosphere  heated 
with  the  passions  of  the  day ;  swayed,  as  we  all  are, 
by  our  own  prejudices,  it  is  not  for  us  to  sit  in  judg- 
ment on  his  political  course.  Impartiality  in  our 
opinions  of  contemporaries  is  often  the  name  which 
we  give  to  our  own  adverse  conceptions.  It  is  char- 
acteristic of  most  men,  either  from  temperament  or 
education,  to  lean  decidedly  either  to  the  conservative 
or  progressive  tendency,  which  forms  respectively  the 
basis  of  our  parties.  In  Mr.  Adams's  political  system 
there  was  a  singular  mixture  of  both  principles.  This 
led  him,  early  in  his  political  career,  to  adopt  a  course 
which  is  sanctioned  by  the  highest  authorities  and 
examples  in  the  country,  that  of  avoiding,  as  far  as 
possible,  an  intimate  and  exclusive  union  with  any 
party.  This  policy  was  studiously  pursued  by  Gen- 
eral Washington.  He  retained  in  his  cabinet  the  two 
great  rival  leaders,  as  long  as  they  could  be  prevailed 
upon  to  sit  side  by  side ;  and  in  appointing  ministers 
to  Great  Britain  and  to  France,  at  a  very  critical  period 
of  our  foreign  relations,  he  acted  upon  the  same 
principle. ,  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  his  inaugural  address 
in  1801,  says,  "We  have  called  by  different  names 


61 

brethren  of  the  same  principle.  We  are  all  repub- 
licans: we  are  all  federalists;"  and  in  1817,  Gen- 
eral Jackson  exhorted  Mr.  Monroe  to  destroy  the 
monster,  party.  It  was,  I  think,  on  the  same  prin- 
ciple that  Mr.  Adams,  when  the  state  government 
was  organized  in  1802,  was  desirous  of  constituting 
the  executive  council  by  a  fair  representation  of  the 
two  parties.  But  this  policy,  I  suspect,  can  never 
be  effectively  pursued,  at  those  periods  when  it  would 
be  of  any  importance,  viz.,  times  of  high  political 
excitement.  A  real  independence  of  party  ties,  on 
great  questions  and  in  difficult  times,  will,  I  fear, 
rarely  be  asserted  without  great  personal  sacrifices 
and  violent  collisions.  Those  whose  general  views 
are  in  sympathy,  if  separated  on  individual  measures 
of  great  interest,  become,  for  that  very  reason,  the 
more  estranged;  and  the  confidence  and  admiration 
of  years  are  succeeded  by  alienation  and  bitterness. 
Burke  and  Fox,  the  dearest  of  friends  and  the 
trustiest  of  allies,  parted  from  each  other  on  the 
floor  of  parliament  with  tears,  but  still  they  parted, 
and  forever.  Happy  the  statesman,  who,  when  the 
collisions  of  the  day  are  past  and  forgotten,  shall  pos- 
sess titles  to  the  abiding  interest  and  respect  of  his 
countrymen  as  brilliant  and  substantial  as  those  of 
Mr.  Adams ! 

In  the  high  offices  which  he  filled  in  the  govern- 
ment, he  may  be  safely  held  up  as  a  model  of  a  public 


62 

4 

servant.  As  a  diplomatist,  his  rank  has  been  assigned 
by  Washington.  As  an  executive  officer,  the  duty  of 
the  day,  however  uninviting,  was  discharged  as  if  it 
were  an  object  of  the  most  attractive  interest.  The 
nlost  obsolete  and  complicated  claim,  if  it  became 
-necessary  for  Mr.  Adams  to  pass  upon  it,  was  sifted 
to  the  bottom  with  the  mechanical  patience  of  an  au- 
ditor of  accounts ;  and  woe  to  the  fallacy,  if  any  there 
were,  which  lurked  in  the  statement.  A  '( report  on 
weights  and  measures,"  prepared  by  Mr.  Adams  in 
the  ordinary  routine  of  official  duty,  is  entitled  to  the 
character  of  a  scientific  treatise.  In  executing  the 
office  of  President  of  the  United  States,  he  was  gov- 
erned by  two  noble  principles,  oftener  professed  than 
carried  into  full  practice.  The  first  related  to  measures, 
and  was  an  all  but  superstitious  respect  for  the  con- 
stitution and  the  law.  Laboring  as  he  did,  by  the 
strange  perversity  of  party  judgments,  under  the 
odium  of  latitudinarian  doctrines,  there  never  lived 
the  public  man,  or  the  magistrate,  who  carried  into 
every  act  of  official  duty  a  deeper  sense  of  the  binding 
power  of  the  constitution  and  the  law,  as  a  rule  of 
conduct  from  which  there  was  no  appeal.  The  second 
principle  regarded  men,  and  was  that  of  conscientious 
impartiality.  I  do  not  mean  that  he  did  not  confer 
important  offices,  when  the  nomination  was  freely  at 
his  discretion,  on  political  friends, — the  services  of 
none  others  can  be  commanded  for  places  of  high 


63 

trust  and  confidence, — but  political  friendship  never 
was  the  paramount  consideration.  He  found  a  ma- 
jority of  the  offices  in  the  country  in  the  possession  of 
his  political  opponents,  and  he  never  removed  one  of 
them  tP  make  way  for  a  friend.  He  invited  Mr. 
Crawford,  a  rival  candidate  for  the  presidency,  to  re- 
tain his  seat  in  the  Cabinet  as  Secretary  of  the  Treas-» 
ury.  He  decided  a  long-standing  controversy  about 
rank  between  the  highest  officers  of  the  army,  against 
his  political  interests.  He  brought  to  every  ques- 
tion that  required  his  decision,  however  wrapped  up 
in  personal  considerations,  the  inflexibility  of  a  judi- 
cial tribunal. 

As  a  man,  he  had,  no  doubt,  the  infirmities  of 
human  nature,  (fair  subjects  of  criticism  to  the  happy 
few  who  are  immaculate,)  but  not,  I  think,  those 
most  frequently  laid  to  his  charge.  He  was  not,  for 
instance,  parsimonious  or  avaricious.  Thrown,  from 
his  first  start  in  life,  upon  his  own  resources,  he 
determined  to  live  within  his  means,  and  studied  a 
decent  economy;  not  because  he  loved  money,  but 
because  he  loved  independence.  That  object  at- 
tained, he  ceased  to  exercise  even  ordinary  thrift  in  the 
management  of  his  affairs ;  but  he  did  not  cease,  to  the 
end  of  his  life,  to  lend  an  ear  to  every  call,  (public  or 
private,)  upon  his  liberality,  far  beyond  the  extent  of 
his  income.  He  did  not,  as  a  minister  abroad,  load 
himself  with  debt,  that  he  might  enjoy  the  satisfac- 


64 

tion  of  being  distanced  in  a  race  of  profusion  with 
the  foreign  ambassadors,  whose  princely  incomes  are 
swelled  by  princely  salaries;  but,  from  the  time  of 
his  first  residence  at  Washington,  as  Secretary  of 
State,  to  the  close  of  his  presidency,  and  even  of  his 
life,  the  hospitality  of  his  house  and  of  his  table  was 
proverbial.  Neither  office,  I  believe,  added  a  dollar  to 
his  fortune.  He  was  plain  in  his  personal  habits  and 
dress,  because  he  was  simple  in  his  tastes  and  feel- 
ings. What  attraction  can  there  be  to  a  thoughtful, 
studious  man, — with  great  affairs  upon  his  hands  and 
upon  his  thoughts, — in  the  wretched  and  fatiguing 
vanities  which  are  the  principal  sources  of  expense  ? 
There  was  an  occasional  abstraction  and  reserve  in 
his  manner,  which  led  those  who  did  not  observe 
him  more  closely,  to  think  him  deficient  in  warmth 
and  cordiality.  But,  while  he  wanted  a  certain  cheer- 
ful flexibility  and  sprightliness,  which,  when  accom- 
panied with  sincerity  and  frankness,  are  a  very  envi- 
able endowment  for  a  public  man, — eminently  useful 
in  making  friends, — yet,  in  real  kindness  of  nature, 
and  depth  and  tenderness  of  feeling,  no  man  sur- 
passed him.  His  venerable  classmate  bears  witness 
that  he  contributed  his  full  share  to  the  hilarity  of 
the  social  circle ;  and  sure  I  am  there  must  be  around 
me  some  who  can  remember  with  me  the  hours,  for 
which  they  have  hung  delighted  on  the  fascination 
of  his  social  converse.  As  far  as  the  higher  sym- 


pathies  of  our  nature  are  concerned, — the  .master 
affections,  whose  sphere  is  far  above  the  little  con- 
ventional courtesies  of  life, — a  warmer  spirit  never 
dwelt  in  a  human  frame. 

But  I  have  left  untouched  the  great  qualities  .of 
the  man,  the  traits  which  formed  the  heroism  of  his 
character,  and  would  have  made  him,  at  all  times, 
and  in  any  career,  a  person  of  the  highest  mark  and 
force.  These  were,  his  lion-heart,  which  knew  not 
the  fear  of  man ;  and  his  religious  spirit,  which  feared 
God  in  all  things,  constantly,  profoundly,  and  practi- 
cally. A  person  of  truer  courage,  physical  and  moral, 
I  think  never  lived.  In  whatever  calling  of  life  he 
had  grown  up,  this  trait,  I  am  sure,  would  have  been 
conspicuous.  Had  he  been  a  common  sailor,  he 
would  have  been  the  first  to  go  to  the  mast-head, 
when  the  topsails  were  flying  into  ribbons.  He  never 
was  called  to  expose  his  life  in  the  field ;  but,  had  his 
duty  required  it,  he  was  a  man  to  lead  a  forlorn  hope, 
with  a  steady  step,  through  a  breach  spouting  with 
fire.  It  was  his  custom, — at  a  time  when  personal 
violence  toward  individuals  politically  obnoxious  was 
not  uncommon, — to  walk  the  unwatched  and  desolate 
streets  of  Washington  alone,  and  before  sun-rise. 
This  may  be  set  down  to  the  steadiness  of  nerves, 
which  is  shared  by  men  of  inferior  tone  of  mind. 
But  in  his  place  in  the  House  of  Representatives, — 
in  the  great  struggle  into  which  he  plunged,  from 
9 


66 

a  conscientious  sense  of  duty,  in  the  closing  years  of 
his  life, — and  in  the  boldness  and  resolution  with 
which  he  trod  on  ground  never  before  thrown  open  to 
free  discussion,  he  evinced  a  moral  courage,  founded 
on  the  only  true  basis  of  moral  principle,  of  which  I 
know  no  brighter  example.  It  was  with  this  he  warred, 
and  with  this  he  conquered ;  strong  in  the  soundness  of 
his  honest  heart,  strong  in  the  fear  of  God, — the  last 
great  dominant  principle  of  his  life  and  character. 

There  was  the  hiding  of  his  power.  There  it  was 
that  he  exhibited,  in  its  true  type,  the  sterling  quality 
of  the  good  old  stock  of  which  he  came.  Offices, 
and  affairs,  and  honors,  and  studies,  left  room  in  his 
soul  for  Faith.  No  man  laid  hold,  with  a  firmer  grasp, 
of  the  realities  of  life  ;  but  no  man  dwelt  more  steadily 
on  the  mysterious  realities  beyond  life.  He  enter- 
tained a  profound,  I  had  almost  said  an  obsolete,  rev- 
erence for  sacred  things.  The  daily  and  systematic 
perusal  of  the  BIBLE  was  an  occupation  with  which  no 
other  duty  was  allowed  to  interfere.  He  attended  the 
public  offices  of  social  worship  with  a  constancy  sel- 
dom witnessed  in  this  busy  and  philosophic  age.  Still 
there  was  nothing  austere  or  narrow-minded  in  his 
religion  ;  there  was  no  affectation  of  rigor  in  his  life 
or  manners  ;  no  unreflecting  adoption  of  traditionary 
opinions  in  matters  of  belief.  He  remained,  to  the 
end  of  his  days,  an  inquirer  after  truth.  He  regu- 
arly  attended  the  public  worship  of  churches  widely 


67 

differing  from  each  other  in  doctrinal  peculiarities. 
The  daily  entry  of  his  journal,  for  the  latter  part  of 
his  life,  begins  with  a  passage  extracted  from  Scrip- 
ture, followed  with  his  own  meditation  and  commen- 
tary ;  and,  thus  commencing  the  day,  there  is  little 
reason  to  doubt  that,  of  his  habitual  reflections,  as 
large  a  portion  was  thrown  forward  to  the  world  of 
spirits,  as  was  retained  by  the  passing  scene. 

The  death  of  such  a  man  is  no  subject  of  vulgar 
sorrow.  Domestic  affliction  itself  bows  with  resig- 
nation at  an  event  so  mature  in  its  season ;  so  rich 
in  its  consolations ;  so  raised  into  sublimity  by  the 
grandeur  of  the  parting  scene.  Of  all  the  great  ora- 
tors and  statesmen  in  the  world,  he  alone  has,  I  think, 
lived  out  the  full  term  of  a  long  life  in  actual  service, 
and  died  on  the  field  of  duty,  in  the  public  eye,  within 
the  halls  of  public  council.  The  great  majority  of 
public  men,  who  most  resemble  him,  drop  away  satis- 
fied, perhaps  disgusted,  as  years  begin  to  wane ;  many 
break  down  at  the  meridian ;  in  other  times  and  coun- 
tries, not  a  few  have  laid  their  heads  on  the  block. 
Demosthenes,  at  the  age  of  sixty,  swallowed  poison, 
while  the  pursuer  was  knocking  at  the  door  of  the 
temple  in  which  he  had  taken  refuge.  Cicero,  at  the 
age  of  sixty-four,  stretched  out  his  neck  from  his  lit- 
ter to  the  hired  assassin.  Our  illustrious  fellow- 
citizen,  in  the  fulness  of  his  years  and  of  his  honors, 
upon  a  day  that  was  shaking,  in  Europe,  the  pillars 


68 

of  a  monarchy  to  the  dust,  fell  calmly  at  his  post, 
amidst  venerating  associates,  and  breathed  his  last 
within  the  Capitol : 

"  And,  which  is  best  and  happiest  yet,  all  this 
With  God  not  parted  from  him, — 
But  favoring  and  assisting  to  the  end. 
Nothing  is  here  for  tears,  nothing  to  wail, 
Or  knock  the  breast ;  no  weakness,  no  contempt, 
Dispraise  or  blame, — nothing  but  well  and  fair, 
And  what  may  quiet  us,  in  a  death  so  noble." 


THE  FOLLOWING  IS  THE  ORDER  OP  THE  SERVICES  ON  OCCASION  OF  THE  DELIVERY  OP  THE 

FOREGOING  EULOGY. 


(£0mmonu)calt[)  of  Jflaesacljusetts. 


ORDER  OF  SERVICES 

AI 

FANEUIL   HALL,    SATURDAY,    APRIL    15,    1848, 

AS  A  TESTIMONY  OF  BESFECT  TO  THE  MEMORY  OF 

JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS, 

BY  THE 

LEGISLATUKE  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 


I. 

VOLUNTARY,  BY  THE  ORCHESTRA. 

n. 

SOLEMN  CHANT,  BY  THE  CHOIR. 

1.  Blessed  is  the  man  that  feareth  the  Lord  :  that  delighteth  greatly  in 

his  commandments. 

2.  Unto  the  upright  there  ariseth  light  in  darkness  :  the  righteous  shall 

be  held  in  everlasting  remembrance. 

3.  The  hope  of  the  ungodly  is  like  dust  that  is  blown  away  by  the 

wind :  like  the  smoke  which  is  dispersed  here  and  there  by  a 
tempest : 


70 

4.  And  passeth  away  as  the  remembrance  of  a  guest  that  tarrieth  but  a 

day. 

5.  But  the  righteous  live  forevermore :  their  reward  also  is  with  the 

Lord,  and  the  care  of  them  is  with  the  Most  High. 

6.  Therefore  shall  they  receive  a  glorious  kingdom  and  a  beautiful 

crown  from  the  Lord's  hand  :  for  with  his  right  hand  shall  he 
cover  them,  and  with  his  arm  shall  he  protect  them. 

7.  The  souls  of  the  righteous  are  in  the  hand  of  God,  and  no  torment 

shall  touch  them  :  in  the  sight  of  the  unwise  they  seem  to  die, 
and  their  departure  is  taken  for  misery,  and  their  going  from  us  to 
be  utter  destruction. 

8.  But  they  are  in  peace  :  for  though  they  be  punished  in  the  sight  of 

men, 

9.  Yet  is  their  hope  full  of  immortality  :  and  having  been  a  little  chas- 

tised, they  shall  be  greatly  rewarded. 

10.  For  God  hath  proved  them,  and  found  them  worthy  for  himself :  and 

they  shall  judge  the  nations,  and  their  Lord  shall  reign  forever. 

11.  I  heard  a  voice  from  heaven,  saying,  Blessed  are  the  dead  which  die 

in  the  Lord  :  yea,  saith  the  Spirit,  that  they  may  rest  from  their 
labors,  and  their  works  do  follow  them. 

m. 

PRAYER,  BY  THE  REV.  C.  A.  BARTOL, 

CHAPLAIN   OF   THE   SENATE. 

rv. 

HYMN. — TUNE,  "SAVANNAH." 

0  what  is  Man,  great  Maker  of  Mankind, 
That  thou  to  him  so  great  respect  dost  bear  ! 

That  thou  adorn'st  him  with  so  great  a  mind, 
Mak'st  him  a  king  and  e'en  an  angel's  peer. 

O  what  a  lively  life,  what  heavenly  power, 
What  spreading  virtue,  what  a  sparkling  fire, 

How  great,  how  plentiful,  how  rich  a  dower, 
Dost  Thou  within  this  dying  flesh  inspire ! 


71 

Thou  hast  not  given  these  blessings  for  a  day, 
Nor  made  them  on  the  body's  life  depend  ; 

The  soul,  though  made  in  time,  survives  for  aye, 
And,  though  it  hath  beginning,  sees  no  end. 

Heaven  waxeth  old,  and  all  the  spheres  above 
Shall  one  day  faint,  and  their  swift  motion  stay  ; 

And  time  itself,  in  time,  shall  cease  to  move, 
Only  the  soul  survives  and  lives  for  aye. 

Cast  down  thyself  then,  Man,  and  strive  to  raise 
The  glory  of  thy  Maker's  sacred  name  ; 

Use  all  thy  powers,  that  blessed  Power  to  praise, 
Which  gives  thee  power  to  be,  and  use  the  same. 

V: 

EULOGY,  BY  THE  HON.  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

VI. 

AIR  AND  CHORUS,  FROM  HANDEL'S  "MESSIAH." 

I  know  that  my  Redeemer  liveth,  and  that  he  shall  stand  at  the  latter 
day  upon  the  earth  :  and  though  worms  destroy  this  body,  yet  in  my 
flesh  shall  I  see  God.  For  now  is  Christ  risen  from  the  dead,  the  first 
fruits  of  them  that  sleep. 

Since  by  man  came  death,  by  man  came  also  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead  :  For  as  in  Adam  all  die,  even  so  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive. 


THE  MUSIC  WAS  PERFORMED  BY  THE  HANDEL  AND  HAYDN  SOCIETY. 


ERRATUM.— On  page  6,  line  2,  for  pending  read  preceding. 


RENEWAL  JANJC 


. 


OEC    31972 


Form  L9-50w-4,'61(B8994s4)444 


DISCHARGE 


I 


3  0  1978 


UWVERSTTY  of  CAUFORNIA 

AT 

LOS  ANGELES 
LIBRARY 


3  1158  00152  4379 


377 
E93 


